tamarack

We're in the +2.5 to +3.5 color, close to the Over +3.5. That's significant for a 3-month period, but it's been more lack of cold than any big heat. Temps have been mostly meh.

Strange little TS 6:30 last evening, had 3 intense but brief (30 sec?) downpours over a 5-6 minute period with little/nothing between, 0.09" so 3-4"/hr in those 3 spates.

After escaping the evil effects of many hundreds of deer (black-legged) ticks in my forestry job, I contracted anaplasmosis a year after I retired. Little beast likely hooked on while I was hunting on Veteran's Day 2022 and found a home in a well-concealed private place. A week later I began to feel crummy and by 11/22 had trouble walking and some vision issues. Wife thought I'd had a stroke and called 911. At the ER she spotted another such critter on my back, offering a clue, and next day I got the doxy Rx. By Thanksgiving (11/24) the symptoms were pretty much gone. Later I was told by one who had suffered both Lyme and anaplas that the latter was worse by far.

They're pretty good at dodging our immediate area, except for a few at odd times. The March 2021 strike that blew up a fir tree 55 yards from the house came with temps in the low 40s, as did the crackling TS last Feb 10, the first one with strikes closer than 2 miles since that tree killer. Annual average days with thunder is 15, and declining. Since 2017 no years have topped 13.

Was hoping the lousy snowpack would allow predators to eat most of the small rodents, major vectors for ticks. I've been seeing ticks for more than a month here, though the numbers don't seem much different form last year.

April-May here had 98% of avg precip - slightly BN April, slightly AN May. 4 of the 1st 5 June days were dry (and just 0.02" on June 3). The 4 rain-free days ties the total for June 2023. POPs continue to be 60-70% beyond day 1 but seem to shrink on the day 1 forecast. Yesterday morning had 70% for this afternoon but by the afternoon it had dropped to 20%, where it stayed. The flood possibility has shrunk to almost nothing - okay with me. We've had too much flooding in the past year, with the Jay cloudburst last June 29 and 2 significant floods on the Sandy River. The rebuilt Farmington Falls bridge opened today, allowing neighbors to meet without having to drive a dozen miles thru Farmington and back, as the temporary bridge was closed due to damage from Dec 18.

Some warm season firsts (for this season only, IMBY): 1st firefly - evening of June 1. 1st deerfly - afternoon of June 3. 1st luna moth - this afternoon, hanging on a seedling ironwood, shaded by the biggest oak (23.75" diam/80+ tall) on our woodlot. Garden finally in yesterday and today, though only the first of 4-5 sequential green bean plantings. Latest I've ever planted cool-season crops (carrots, pac choi, etc.) and latest for initial row of beans. May be the new best way, may be a disaster. Early lilac and quince blossoms are done, late lilacs coming into full, waiting on the peonies.

BR usually starts on limbs and travels to the trunk, where it kills the cambium layer. The fungus travels down much more slowly - if you see a sizable white pine with a dead top but many live limbs beneath, likely the top was killed by BR. If the BR girdling occurs below the live crown, the tree dies. There's also been considerable needle drop fungi (3 species IIRC) over the past dozen years that take out the overwintered needles while the new growth is extending, with the old needles usually falling in June. That weakens the tree, as the established "factory" is destroyed while the tree is building the new one. The public lot on at Topsham Maine has had considerable pine mortality from this. A wet spring helps foster those fungi.

Might be white pine blister rust, though the lower pic looks odd, with browning branches all around below a green top.

We bought ours specifically for cooling. In its 3 years, we've never used it for heat. Of course, the only wall big enough to mount the critter is about 10 feet from the Jotul. Backup is oil-fired hot water baseboard, also our domestic hot water, but wood is the main fuel. Typical winter we burn about 5 cords; probably a bit more this coming winter as we'll run a cord-plus of basswood thru the stove, from the big tree we paid to have dropped, since it had internal defect and a strong lean toward the house.

Spring 2023

The GYX site offered a work-around. I looked it up, but it involved going on the browser's "settings", typing "cache" in the search line, then emptying everything in my cache. Since that would smoke all of my passwords, among other things, I didn't care to comply. I'm probably missing something there.

Another morning near 40. While we were in SNJ celebrating the HS graduation of our oldest granddaughter, it rained one night (7th) plus a shower on the 29th. Back here, the max-min showed a high of 75, low of 38 (prob. 30th) during May 25-31. Had 1.76" during the period, with other sites indicating it came all/most on the 27th into early 28th. Had a great trip, including a journey to Lancaster PA on the 30th to pick up rustic furniture for the family's new enclosed porch. Coming home yesterday, hit a real mess on I-495; shortly after we came onto it from I-290, the update sign said 26 miles to I-93, estimated 62 minutes - not good. And we didn't get clear of the stop-n-go until Haverhill. No cause seen, just too many cars.

Not BX, but the GYX site has lost (temporarily, one hopes) the drop-down menus for observations/radar, etc., over the past two days. They worked for a few hours yesterday but are unavailable so far today.

That's our strategy. On warmer days the fan gets used as soon as the outside temp drops below the inside. The AC mode of the heat pump is used as needed when the outside temp is the warmer, and daytime only while we're relatively near it.

River is super muddy this morning, though hasn't risen much. Combo of freshly plowed fields and yesterday's TS. A friend with a scanner heard lots of calls about trees down, wires down, Farmington, Wilton, other towns. We had 0.42" but the real action passed a few miles to our south. Low of 45 this morning, first sub-50 since May 14, real CoC stuff, with enough breeze to make the black flies work for a meal. The month's first 13 days were almost exactly on the average. 14-23 was +9.3, pulling the month up to +4.1.

TS just finishing here, was warned but the real stuff was a few miles south. Front end gusts 30+ (heard one snag go down) and 10-20 strikes/minute but none closer than 2 miles to MBY, about 1/3" RA and temp chopped by 15°, 80 to 65.

Last week I ran the heat pump in AC mode after an hour of cutting/splitting elm firewood. 30 minutes and the sweat had stopped. Clouds dissipated by 8:30 this morning, now mostly sunny. 7th straight day with minima in the 50s; 4 days had been the longest such run here.

Low-mid 70s here with low rh, very nice for cleaning up the last of the usable wood that blew down last December and remained under the roadside plow piles into last month. Bugs were a non-issue when the saw was running but a couple drew blood as I split the stuff. (Crummy wood - basswood and fir - but less than 10 feet from where I could park the truck.)

When we lived in the back settlement west from Fort Kent, we made a curving tube run behind the house. 2-3 kids would climb onto an inner tube from a skidder and George the cat liked to stand in the track then jump up so to land on the kids' laps, fun for all. One time he was a bit late on the jump, though the soft inner tube caused no harm. The cat reappeared then sprinted up to our porch and sat there grooming: "Nothing to see here."

For me, the best part of a Maine lobster are the big claws - succulent and tender. Do any lobsters other than the North Atlantic species have the large claws? 0.33" over 9 hours yesterday, max 61 after 5 days of 69-74.

There's a lot of perception involved. As the local wx hobbyist, I get asked about the forecast. Given verification like today, different reactions: To NWS, "You blew it." To me, "You nailed it."

A few days checking out the buffet, then a week or so of casual dining (the current situation here) followed by a week plus of diving in teeth first - no wandering around looking for a soft spot, just eat and run. Sugar maple leaves about 3/4 grown, red oak halfway, ash and basswood lagging behind as always.

Another low 70s day, 4th in the last 5 with 69 on the one miss. TD is well below midsummer swamp level, but high enough for considerable sweat while working up some firewood. (The fact that it was elm added to the sweat, though my having killed the tree 2 years ago actually made the cross-grain a bit weaker.) Fair amount of black flies out and about, and starting to get hungry. Maybe we'll miss the worst of the swarms as we're headed to SNJ for the last week of the month - oldest granddaughter graduates HS.

Already into the 50s by 7 AM, and with near full sun we'll be up close to 80 unless clouds/RA intervene. Black flies irritating but haven't been biting - yet. Maybe today will open their mouths.