tamarack

Sounds like fun. When I was up north, one of the Jackson clan from Allagash was hauling a load of tree-length spruce toward St.-Pamphile and was approaching the crest of a short but steep hill when the driveshaft broke and one end whipped around and cut his air hose. With no go and no brakes, he attempted to keep everything in the narrow and slightly curved road as he rolled backwards. Almost inevitably, that didn't happen and he was rolling so fast when he jackknifed that the trailer fortunately* ripped off the 5th wheel as it was tipping over and the once-forward butts of the spruce ended up pointed back from where they had come from. *Repairing the 5th wheel assembly wasn't cheap but far less than fixing a cab that had gone tail over teakettle, not to mention what might've happened to the driver.

Had my chance when a friend dislocated his shoulder and couldn't drive his very hard steering tractor - 1940s vintage, red so maybe a Case. Pushing that April windslab - the place was at 1200' with a west aspect in Frenchville - was a challenge. Also helped the apartment neighbor who got his little backhoe too close to the embankment and dropped the smaller wheels over the edge. He pulled with the hoe while I did clutch/gas and flipped snow with the bucket and we finally got it back on the level.

The co-op in Fort Kent is a prime example. Folks from that area know well that FK usually has more snow and deeper pack than CAR but the records show the opposite. From 1989-90 thru 2019-20 (without 2-02-03 and 03-04 as FK has missing months), CAR's average is 120.3" while FK's is 98.1". In the 5 winters that we lived in town within a mile or 2 and 20' elevation, 76-77 thru 80-81, my average was 126.2", FK 102.3", CAR 117.7". When we moved to the back settlement at 970', about 450 above our former home, my average was 144.0", FK 92.9", CAR 118.7".

Protocols were intentionally not followed at the York County lockup, "Don't wear masks, it might spook the inmates." Those 6 fatalities at the Madison long-term care facility are almost all those in Maine during the past month.

Saturday morning should have colder temps than today. Couple of white patches near the lodge to get folks ramped up?

If there have been no fatwahs proclaimed, it would seem that Islam isn't too concerned.

My highs for 18-22: -14/-4/+9 (torch!), -6, -6.

January 1982 was my coldest month in Fort Kent, averaging 9.2/-12.3. It is also Farmington, Maine's coldest for any month since records there began in 1893. The first week was mild, 7F AN, but 8-31 the average was 5.4/-16.5. The month had 9 subzero maxima (9-11, 18-19, 21-23 and 26) plus 6 single digit highs. While the -7/-31 temps of the 10th were noteworthy, by far the most brutal cold came on 17-18. After a cheap evening high of 13, Sunday the 17th featured a precipitous drop with winds gusting into the 40s. It was minus teens by 8 AM (only time I've seen one of those flimsy dry-cleaner plastic bags shatter) and the bank sign read -24 at 3:45 PM. By my 9 PM obs time it was -29. Next morning the gusts had dropped a bit, probably still approaching 40, the temp was -34 and visibility was about 2 miles in light snow. (On the old WCI scale that's about -101. On the new it's around -70.) Even with the good heater-hose engine warmer plugged in, my Chevy Luv pickup barely started. That wind howled all day and my high was -14. The wind never really quit the rest of the month. On Tuesday 1/26 we were check-scaling logs in the wood yard of a pine mill across the river in Clair, New Brunswick. Temps that day were -4/-24 and there's no place hotter/dustier in summer or colder/windier in winter than a mill yard. The stench from the pork by-product rendering mill a hundred yards upwind didn't help. If you were at the 'Loaf on 1/17, I would be surprised if they didn't have a wind-hold, or an early closing due to dangerous wind chill.

Most amazing to me is the "York County Jail" outbreak - inmates, staff, families of staff - totaling mid 70s last I saw and evidently coming via the one jail staffer who was at the wedding. Not following the written protocol at the jail was key - "no masks because they didn't want to scare the prisoners" was one bit of foolishness I read.

September (and April-May) snow in Denver isn't terribly unusual. Snow 2 days after 97° is record-setting, and hard to comprehend.

The state system won't allow that. Parks and Lands can't even advertise the position until I'm fully retired and the process (getting a register, setting up interviews, receiving permission to make an offer) will take several months. We've talked of my coming back on a contract, for that training and because 2021 is when we have to undergo a full recertification audit by the Forest Stewardship Council - happens every fifth year. It's a complex process, and while I'm sharing some details with our recently (May) hired assistant bureau director, the new chief forester probably could use some background (unless a long-time bureau forester were to get the job.)

About 3 months ahead of me - enjoy!

Odd to see one growing on a slant, as they're about the straightest and most vertical of all deciduous trees, though like all of that group it will tilt toward the sun if shaded on one side. Five feet in diameter? Which lake - there's a bunch in that corner of the state.

Hard to get the right scale, but it might be large enough (significantly bigger than hornets/yellowjackets) to be a wood wasp. They're solitary and non-stinging.

Not as good in Maine but still decent. Not interested in solar, would need to cut loads of trees and make frequent roof trips to clear off the snow. We're exploring the heat pump option, more for AC than for heat, in part because the only place for installation (without removing windows, cabinets or both) is 10-12' from the woodstove.

Thanks for the full context; I was writing from memory. My semi-quotes came from the KJV. Both are reliable versions.

Reminds me of a parable in Luke's Gospel. Paraphrasing it very loosely, a man has crop yields too great to fit in his barns, so he decides to tear them down and build bigger. He thinks that then he'll be all set for years and years. But God says, "Thou fool!" and says the man's life ends that very night, "and whose will be your goods now?"

More likely the owners didn't want to be associated with the poor folks who can only afford $5 million mansions.

"Safe" in this context is relative. The science says that wearing masks greatly reduces the chances of getting COVID-19 but I've not heard any science that says it totally eliminates the chances. Sitting in a poorly ventilated room (typical of many small-town voting places) for 8 hours while hundreds of people file by multiplies the "greatly reduce[d]" chances. Volunteers in our town are generally dedicated and will be there, but reducing the number of folks parading past the registry table can only help. Edit: 'Berg nicely describes the "lock the gate behind me" syndrome.

Depends on how one does it. When "phase 2" arrived in June, meetings of up to 50 people were okayed, with masks and/or distancing. Our pews are tape-blocked such that differing family groups sit 6+ feet apart and families with younger kids view the service remotely from a downstairs room to ensure <50. We do sing hymns, but those with louder voices (like me) mask up to sing. Choir has not yet resumed - we had hoped to present our Easter program for the church's 40th anniversary in June - no go - so now were looking at December and doing it as the Christmas program as the material works for either holiday. I'm not real confident it will go completely, maybe just the spoken parts w/o the choir. Just common sense.

With the new town hall just beginning to be built and no sizable place in town to vote, a social-distanced queue of more than 10 people will have most standing outside. November can be messy, even during the 1st week. Because of that and our ages, my wife and I will vote absentee but hand-deliver our ballots before the crowds arrive on election day. Killington folks gone wild And it may be just beginning. Less than 30 of the 65 guests at the infamous Millinocket wedding early last month got the virus, but with secondary/tertiary infections the total related positives is probably approaching 140, with 66 in the York County jail alone. When it was 54 the cases included 19 staff and 35 prisoners. Yikes!

That's almost too narrow for a kick turn. I thought that Scotch Mist (Glen Ellen's name for the upper lift line at Sugarbush North) was a pucker-power trail, but it's about twice as wide. And though it's steep, it may not be as vertical as that chute, though it has a number of very hard vertical obstacles down the middle. Back when Glen Ellen was a thing I got to where I could ski some black diamonds, but would never set a ski on that one.

As a NJ expat I can relate. However, in 47+ years in Maine only once have I had someone take issue with my being from away, and he was a politician with an axe to grind. CTS (consider the source.) I've never expected to be considered a native, however. Unlike what Skivt2 posted about born in VT vs growing up there, in Maine there's still some of the "Those kittens being born in the oven doesn't make them biscuits", or as a (humorist) Tim Sample fictional routine, "Chester Gormley was 6 months old when he and his family moved to Maine. All his adult life he could never understand why folks considered him to be from away. When he died at age 97, his tombstone was inscribed 'He was almost one of us.'"

Finally floated the canoe in North Pond (Belgrade Lakes.) Lots of small white perch but I was after what's eating fish that size. Never a bad day on the lake. - saw a fawn bouncing thru the brush next to a shoreline lawn and had a large snapping turtle surface within 5 yards of me, twice. Water is cloudy with algae so couldn't see the whole animal but its head looked like the 40-pounders I caught in NNJ eons ago.

Highest I've seen, and that part of eastern Maine was the jack (for the US, might've dumped more in New Brunswick.)