tamarack

Something falling from the sky all day, but only 0.04" since 7 AM. Just enough to keep everything wet.

9100 sq.ft. on 62 acres with near-circular views. Brings to mind the query about the cost of running a huge yacht (J.P.Morgan's?) to which the owner replied, if you have to ask, you can't afford it. 5 mil?

Unless those branches are actually doing damage at present, in which place stopping damage takes precedence over pruning seasonality, I still recommend waiting until first freeze next fall. Whenever you prune, maybe cut back to retain forks/twigs that point away from the house.

0.89" after 16 hours of mostly -RA, nice garden rain bringing the May total to 1.66". Still very light rain but not a whole lot upstream unless one of the forecast convective spots hits us this afternoon. If not, it will be the 3rd May in a row without thunder (was 17 of 21 before that) and the first when both March and April had thunder.

First, don't prune it now - should be done in the dormant season, both for setting new buds and because freezes cut the decay fungus spores to almost nothing. Second, what's the objective? Pruning is a lot different when done for shape than when done for fruit. I'm still in beginners' class when it comes to pruning, but for shape (my guess for objective) maybe prune toward the shape you want while taking less than 20% of the total live branch length. And that small cloud looks almost lenticular, though it's not in the more common places of that type of cloud. yeah the few times I went weather was iffy. Prefer south Jersey personally-about the same distance from here- warmer water better weather overall. We used to go to Long Beach Island when we lived in NNJ, but even then (~1970) the traffic on Rt 35 was a horror show - can't imagine what it's like now.

Good catch - I never looked at Saddleback. The highest condos south of the base get up to 2640'. Again, I suspect those are all second homes and I think the original question was for primary residences.

But not dewpoints?

47 44 .74" 45 41 .59 This after a week of mid-high and humid 80s in SNJ with the grandkids.

Cloudy (sometimes thin enough for some shadows) and dry yesterday, temps 56/42. Down to low 30s this morning before the clouds rolled in. We're hoping the 1"+ models verify here, as only 0.27" the past 3 weeks with summertime sun angle - dusty.

The huge nursery where we bought plants yesterday had signs requesting masks and about 90% did so. I saw no attempts by staff to enforce the requests. A half mile away at Kennebec Cabin Company, no masks in sight. (Never saw the Maine Cabin Masters crew with masks on during their pandemic-time projects, though they did the social distance thing with clients.)

Hope the one knocked off the tube was okay! A former co-worker (now retired) had numerous near misses when fishing for stripers in Augusta. Also caught fish up to 42" long with his fly rod and giant (alewife-size) streamers.

wxmanmitch lives at 2230' in the southern Greens. He might know if any neighbors live uphill from there. Highest I found in a quick search of Rangeley was about 1920'. If htre are any higher fulltime residences I don't know of them. Maybe condos at Sugarloaf? The highest ones (on 2016 imagery) were at about 2050' but I suspect none are primary residences.

Elevation ftw, though latitude can help. In 1980 when we still lived in town at Fort Kent, at 550', I delayed planting tomatoes/peppers for a week because we'd always get cool and windy wx right after Memorial Day weekend. 2 days after planting we had upper 30s with enough snow to turn the grass a couple shades lighter than lime green but not quite enough to measure - it was June 9. Co-workers measuring cubic content of spruce west of Allagash at 12-1300' froze their butts as 1"+ fell on them. 5 days later it was 90°. Nice. I enjoy that show, looks like a down to earth group that I’d enjoy grabbing a beer with. One of their projects involved folks connected with a S. Maine microbrewery and they had a special MCM beer brewed. I can't remember the brewery (I don't drink - mea culpa) so no idea if that was a one-time brew or a continued product.

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.