tamarack

Had ours Saturday the 14th while all the grandkids were here. Four adults and 7 kids put a major dent in the 22-lb bird. I've had tofu twice in my life. It was horrendous each time....including the 2nd time when a vegetarian friend insisted "this one is really good". The concept of a "Tofurkey" sounds nightmarish. I've had tofu twice in my life. It was horrendous each time....including the 2nd time when a vegetarian friend insisted "this one is really good". The concept of a "Tofurkey" sounds nightmarish. Maybe there's some good tofu out there but I'm not actively going to search for it. Had tofu numerous times during our Japan tip in 2016. At best, it was like a near-tasteless custard. Even deep-fried it was no better than meh. I've had some veggie burgers in years past - with the proper spices, almost anything with a near-proper texture will taste good. I've no interest in trying the newer "Beyond" and "Impossible" products, especially after reading about them in Consumer Reports. The article showed that those things had similar fat (though much less saturated fat) and considerably more sodium than the real thing. The testers reported something like 4-5 ingredients in a classic veggie burger and 16 to 20+ for the newer entries. A chemical feast!

That article reminded me of one I read long ago (between classes, at the U. Maine library) in Appalachia. It's far enough back in time that the 2 stories might've been by the same author, with the more recent one based on the 1973 or 74 account.

Or when Nate Z took the teaching job in Rindge, NH, in fall 2011. Not only was the job a bummer (no support from admin) but he had less snow than he'd been getting in Dobbs Ferry.

Harris Station is indeed at the dam on the Kennebec. That's where the rafters put in to float down to The Forks. Long Falls Dam measured 56" from that storm, and I've seen that reported as Maine's biggest single snowstorm. Here is the data I have for Pinkham: 2/25/1969 27 18 2.11 21 113 2/26/1969 22 18 2.5 24.5 137 2/27/1969 26 15 1.61 27 164 2/28/1969 22 9 0.25 4.5 158 They had 130" for the month, with a 16" event during the 1st week and 30" from the "Mayor Lindsey" storm, reported on the 10th. MWN reported 97.8" from almost 15" LE. All that snow raised the pack on the summit from 22" to 26" - probably added 8-10 feet to Tucks. And I forgot to note with my "trivia" that it was for March 1993.

Had 24.6" here, which thanks to the thaws could only raise the pack from 4" to 11 - winter's "peak" as Feb 1 onward yielded only 7.8" compared to my 45" average for that half of winter. That's my only snow season since NNJ (1967-68) that never had even a 6" event.

82-foot boat out of PWM. According to what I read, CG found an empty raft and a life jacket - not good.

The 2 worst ice storms, by far (1953 and 1998) came on Jan. 8-9, a solid month and a half from today's date. For SNE, December seems the prime time, at least for the past 90 years.

And CAD-ing. LEW 37 and AUG 50 at 9 AM. Temp has rocketed up to 35 here, with moderate RA. The swamps inevitably get filled before winter.

And sometimes multiple such cycles for the same system.

That was more than a "typical noreaster" here - one of only 4 events in 22 winters to meet all the criteria for a blizzard - 12/6-7/03, 12/21-22/08 and 1/27-28/15 are the others. Terrorized our TX rescue Lab; she'd gotten somewhat used to snow as we'd had 45" in her first 2 weeks here, but the 40+ gusts plus SN+ cowed her. She stayed in my footprints long enough to step aside across the road and do her business. Without the leash she'd not have ventured 2 feet from the door. 1st 33° RA event of the season! Started with 0.1" of SN/IP - still little piles on wipers and on creases in the tarp covering the snowblower.

Back in my brief and unlamented time as the state's urban forester, I went to the national convention in Minneapolis and on a field tour thru Hennepin County we saw an area planted to burr oak at which the trees had 4-ft tree tubes. They found that when the little trees emerged rom the tubes the leaves were at the perfect height so deer could dine without having to lower their heads. (Of course, w/o the tubes those trees would never have reached even 2 feet tall.)

Curious about one of the sites in Maine that had 48-60 in Feb 1969- the point at the SW end of that color is Long Falls Dam (which sadly went off line in 2011 - at least I can no longer find its data.) Is the one to the NE Harris Dam? Farmington co-op's 43" is their biggest dump on record and their pack was 84" at the end - was Maine's deepest until Chimney Pond in Baxter Park reported 94" in 2017. Some trivia - Gardiner, Maine co-op reported 12.0" but 3 miles south at our place we had 10.3" from 1.70" LE from often rimed flakes.

Nice! In our experience, deer love to browse chestnut so we put wire cages around the ones we planted.

Were those trees developed thru crossbreeding with Chinese chestnut or by lab work? (Just curious, and hoping the resistance is permanent and many get planted.) If American chestnuts can avoid all wounds they are fairly resistant. Unfortunately, wounds are part of every tree's life. There used to be a very attractive grove next to the Maine Forest Service entomology lab in Augusta. Planted in 1969, by the mid 1990s they were 65' tall and arrow straight - oldtimers said they were the best representatives of pre-blight chestnuts they'd seen. Then came Jan. 1998 and many broken branches; all those trees were dead 2 years later. I see a lot of the chestnut when I inspect older houses, great versatile wood, was great for building and burning. Would love to see it make a comeback. The NNJ lake community where I lived 1950-71 began in 1930 as a seasonal place, and the first dozen or so cabins were built from American chestnut hulks remaining from when the blight had gone thru there in the teens. Most of those cabins remain and are lived in, but the one where my (future) wife lived was several owners later remodeled with contemporary siding. Booo!

Glad you added the lol to that hyperbole, as this past May was the first time here with 1"+ pack. Latest I've gone with continuous cover was 4/23 in 2001; that month had 47" on the 1st but had only 0.6" for April as the big dog went east and hammered NFLD on 4/1-2. Max pack for 3 sites: Season Randolph J.Spin Tam 09-10 59 21 20 10-11 40 40 28 11-12 26 16 19 12-13 36 19 20 13-14 42 25 43 14-15 42 25 31 (The Farmington co-op reached 48" while the New Sharon co-op only hit 23".) 15-16 17 11 14 16-17 54 27 47 17-18 47 26 34 18-19 60 33 41 19-20 39 20 21 Average 42.0 23.9 28.9

No sweat. CAR had 70.3" in 09-10, their 3rd lowest snow season in their 80 year POR. 61-62 is 2nd lowest at 68.5" and 43-44 is lowest, though a bit uncertain because March data is missing. Using Fort Kent's 3/44 snow would give a CAR total of 59.5".

Signal seems weak for NNE, at least at CAR, PWM and my much shorter record. Ninas with BN December snow finished at 87% for both CAR and me while it was 94% at PWM. However, much of that BN winter comes directly from the BN DEC. If one looks only at winter apart from December, CAR is at 97%, I'm 99% and PWM is 101%.

I didn't bother with the pain killers. Some bourbon was good enough without the constipation I was given an Rx for oxycodone after my C-4 fusion surgery in 2011. Went home after one overnight and took one pill the next evening. Woke up 2 AM salivating such that I had to swallow 5-6 times/minute, with each swallow dragging part of the cervical collar back and forth across the lightly-bandaged incision site - pain 10+ times worse than anything else from that episode so I was one and done. Cloudy and upper 20s at 11 AM, with a raw SW wind. Low was about 7, making it 15 of 23 Novembers with at least one sub-10° morning, including 9 of the last 10.

So you had to trigger my PTSD from 2009-10, didn't you? And that winter's BWI vs. CAR snowfall comparison is probably a 200-year event, maybe 500.

Our white Thanksgiving are 9 of 22, 41%, so the median is zero. Pack for those 9 years totals 43" with both 2014 and 2018 tops with 11".

I don't bet but IMO that's hyperbole (as per your sig. ) Topped out at 27 today. That was the coldest max in Dec 2001, but that month went subzero 3 times. 12/06 had one day with max 21 but never got below 6 all month. All other Decembers here had month mini-maxes ranging from 20 down to -3.

from the link: Scott explained that 71% of outbreaks reported from Oct. 1 to Nov. 13 were linked to “social events, parties and people hanging out at home or bars and clubs.” He added Vermont has not seen the virus spread widely at schools, restaurants or other businesses. Dr. Mark Levine, the state health commissioner, said those parties came in a variety of sizes of parties — Halloween gatherings large and small, dinner parties, baby showers, “people in the high single numbers at a deer camp.” Color me skeptical on the bolded; perhaps it's a like-kind assumption but I doubt it's based on actual numbers at those locations. Vermont's firearms season only opened a week ago and I'd guess there are far more occupied deer camps in that season than for the archery season that began on October 5.

Right. It's not apples to oranges - maybe apples to anteaters.

Airplanes yes, terminals not so much, especially if waits/lines are long.

We've had 3, but way too early - Sept 30, Oct 13 and 16-17. As J.Spin had no idea he was moving into a low-elevation snow paradise, I was clueless in 1998 that we were moving to one of the best low-elevation pack retention locations in the Maine foothills. Some interesting (to me at least) comparisons of my site with the 2 nearby co-ops. Farmington is 6 miles to my west and 420' (I'm at 395), New Sharon 3 lies miles SSE at 485'. Averages, 1998-99 on: Site Snow Max depth Days 1"+ SDDs SDDS/snow NS co-op 81.4 25.3 116 1,281 15.74 Farm co-op 92.1 31.6 111 1,698 18.44 Tamarack 90.6 29.6 124 1,800 19.87 NS co-op measures snow only at 7 AM, explaining some of the totals difference. It's also a wind-scoured gentle N aspect, which may be limiting depth though days of cover are long. Farmington co-op is on a moderate west aspect and doesn't hold 1-2" depths very well - in 2002-03, a low snow but cold winter, it had 99 days of 1"+ while NS co-op had 145 and I had 146. My site is near fully stocked forest and even the bare-limbed hardwoods block 25-40% of sunlight.