tamarack

Haven't planted anything because the soil is so dry I'd drain our well trying to moisten it. So today we'll visit Longfellow's in Manchester and pick up tomatoes/peppers/whatever else looks good. We'll stop at Kennebec Cabin Company on the way home, the old house fixed up as a store by Maine Cabin Masters - among other things would like to see Ashley's work table, a single wood slab 4x12 feet.

Fire in the stove feels good this morning. Hope the forecast for tomorrow night works out, as this first system is cool, cloudy and dry here. If we get the rain tomorrow into Monday, it will be the 3rd time in a year that a record dry month was avoided at the very end. June's driest is 1.22" in 2004 and we'd had 0.69" thru the 28th before getting 3.50" on 29-30. September had 0.15" thru the 29th (driest for any month here is 0.31" in April 1999) then had 1.14" on the 30th. This month is at 0.77" and the direst May was 1.15" three years ago. Hope we miss that one too.

Thanks for posting this - very sad yet also heartwarming. My wife and I are mourning someone only a little older, a young lady who lived with us for 11 months in 2006-07 (turned 18 while here) who then joined the Air Force (earning many commendations, which we learned only from the obit - she never bragged on herself), got married, had a little girl, and then 18 months ago was diagnosed with cancer. Earlier this month she had part of her colon removed, small enough to avoid the bag but enough to get all the tumor, and we celebrated. That night blood clots formed in her lungs and she was gone - shockingly - 4 days after turning 33. She had received Christ as personal Savoir so we know she's with Him now, which is some comfort. Funeral yesterday with full military honors, including an escort from Logan to Maine, 21-gun salute and looked like her entire platoon attended. Eyes are wet just typing this.

Leaves yes, stems no - cut the top part off as soon as the blossom is done. That keeps the plant from diverting energy into seed production. My dad used to dig up the bulbs in midsummer and replant in early spring (in NNJ) but I don't think those gorgeous hectares of Dutch tulips aren't dug/replanted annually.

March was the sunniest for any month in my 23 years here, followed by the 5th consecutive April with BN sun for that month. May will finish slightly AN for sun. March precip was 43% of average, April 103% and unless we get more than 0.38" over the weekend this will be the driest May of 24 here. Even May 1998, with records for just the final 15 days (we moved here mid-month), is a half inch ahead of 2021.

Wind went calm but the clouds stayed around to keep temps well above freezing. With mid 20s dews, a clear night would've been frosty here.

Trace here.

And extra water off the roof?

Deciding whether to plant the small seeded stuff (carrots, arugula, pac choi) before we get siggy RA - would mean 100+ gallons from our shallow dug well and I'm not sure that's a good idea. Grass seed spread 10 days ago on a bare patch in the lawn have not begun to germinate. 3 weeks with only 0.27" precip isn't a 'real' drought but it's strategically bad at planting time.

Lots of frost/freeze advisories are posted. Not uncommon here - 10 of 23 years had last frost 5/28 or later.

We used Olympic on our L.C. Andrews cedar log-sided house. First time was about 2020 and we had it redone 3 years ago. I'd guess it's about $40/gallon these days. On a side note, we learned last summer that the Maibec shingle mill in St.-Pamphile, PQ is the biggest such facility in eastern North America. Did not know they had branched out to pre-stained siding. Their name is a contraction of Maine/Quebec, as most of their raw material, cedar and the spruce-fir for their huge dimension lumber sawmill, comes from northern Maine.

Since May 6 we've recorded some rain on 9 of 19 days, for a total of 0.27". Like (place ethnicity here) water torture.

Learned pizza (and Italian sandwich) architecture from the best at the pizza shop in BGR while I was at UMaine. Owner was a 2nd or 3rd generation Neapolitan from Bay Ridge in Brooklyn and made the best NY-style pizza in the area. The manager of Pizza Hut would come to Napoli's when he wanted good pizza. When the grandkids are visiting we have a pizza-building party. I make and roll the dough and show them how to pound it down and stretch it, though I don't encourage having them tossing it even though I'll demonstrate the spin. Then they get to decorate the dough as desired - lots of fun, food and mess.

Kind of what I said. After ducking down to the dash I had time to think, "Always wondered what a bad crash would feel like and I'm about to find out."

My woods crash in 1981 was likely the 1 in 1000 where not being belted might've been helpful. I was lying along the dash when we hit and went from +25 to -20 in less than 1/10 second. Slight fracture on left leg, 2 sprained ankles, cartilage damage in ribcage (a month of painful breathing) and level 2 spinal fusion at C-4 in 2011. However, the degree to which the right side of the cab was compromised probably would've meant a high speed face plant on the dash and/or door post and life threatening head injuries. Ironically, we all began wearing seat belts in the woods after that.

More to learn about the effect on the under-18 cohort, especially since I think some companies are testing 5-11 year-olds. Under 5 is probably off the board even if some talking heads think otherwise. And that "tiny state of CT" has population about 200k greater than all of NNE - it's 29th of the 50 states even while ranking 48th in area.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are mRNA not dead/neutered virus, to create antibodies without exposure to C-19. I think J&J is a more old-style vaccine but that's somewhat a guess - once I got the Moderna my interest in J&J dropped precipitously.

Probably too late to acquire and spread hay (or straw - weed free) over the new seed, but that would accomplish 2 things - some protection from downpour/runoff impact and partial shade for the new seedlings. Our estimate in haying where we seed (logyards, winter roads, etc) is 40 square bales per acre.

Good illustration, though with one (off topic a bit) caveat: IMO, using tree rings as proxy for temps has low validity except where a tree species is near the northern or southern edge of its range. Growing season moisture seem to have a far greater effect. I've measured a small number (currently 10) of trees at 2-week intervals both where I now live and when we were in Gardiner, and have seen little correlation between growth and temp, large correlation between growth and precip. In 1995, hottest JJA of my 13 in Gardiner, RA was scarce between mid June and mid Sept and diameter growth stopped in midsummer on most of the 6 trees I was measuring there, then had a bit of late September growth at a time when other seasons showed growth was ended. Last year had the lowest growth of my 9 seasons of measurements here, and had only bits of RA between mid July and Sept 30. Anecdotal and small sample size, but other Maine foresters/researchers also noted the reduced growth and vigor of white pine due to the 1995 drought. (Current growth rates are confounded by the effect of needlecast fungi in many places.)

36 here, 3° milder than yesterday. With the cool airmass this coming weekend, a clear calm night might be frosty.

As I'm sure you know, climatologists are generally predicting more variable wx including bigger precip events and longer dry spells. So instead of (hypothetical) June having 6 days with significant RA totaling 4", we get 2 deluge days 3 weeks apart, totaling 5", much of which runs off rather than soaking in.

In my northern Maine experience the not0infrequent June frosts had no effect on the blackfly populations. Frozen dew atop the Forester this morning though the thermometer only got down to 33. We never set out the warm-wx plants until a few days into June. Median day for lst spring frost is May 24. Though ours is a frost-pocket location, it's probably not as cold on still mornings as Alex's place.

And as sentimental favorite to some, there was probably more than a little $$ placed on him.

Read that the bumping occurred while on 18 - walking toward that final green? So while no fun, it had little to do with the results.

Frozen dew on the Forester this morning, back into the 80s day after tomorrow. Whiplash.