tamarack

30k plus in Maine. The state allows baiting, trapping, sets a long season and has no limit on bear hunters, probably the most liberal regs south of Alaska, and the population is still increasing.

Several years ago, I bought Havahart traps as woodchucks were setting up housekeeping under our shed. Only caught a half-grown 'chuck (transplanted 3/4 mile away), as mom & dad departed once I was in/out of the shed daily. Yesterday I hit the birdfeeder-raiding gray squirrel with a half-charge pellet from my Crossman - classic butt cheek strike, hope he/she remembers it.

Over the past 30 days we've had rain events of 4.45", 1.83", 0.98" and 0.29" - total 7.55". Two days had sprinkles and 18 were totally dry. Today makes 19 and it will be 21 days of 33 before Friday's CF. I can't remember getting so much rain on so few days before. 40.1 here. Hopefully we’re done with the 30s although I suppose there’s a shot d5 or so. OWD and MVY 36° lol Since moving here in May 1998, 2006 is the only June not to have dipped below 40. Today's 39 was a few degrees milder than I expected, and we may crack the <40° over the weekend.

Saying I heard years ago: An Indian shot an arrow into the air. The eagle saw it fall, the deer heard it fall, the bear smelled it fall. Our feeder is on a line and pulleys, like a clothesline, and it's about 12' off the ground and the same distance from house and tree. A persistent gray squirrel has walked the "tightrope" to the feeder a couple times, but I doubt a bear could do that. Considering than Maine may have the highest bear population in the lower 48 (WA/WI also have a lot), the state has surprisingly few bear-people confrontations.

Planted some carrots, beets, greens today, need to put some water on them this aft. Peppers, tomatoes, cucurbits and 1st (of 5) rows of beans, this coming Saturday. We prefer eating the beans uncooked, thus plant 5 sequential rows, final one ~July 4.

May 14, 2022 at my place: 90/52, earliest 90 I've recorded in Maine. 86/48 yesterday, to warm/too early for me despite the low dews - would be nice in late July though we'll never have that temp/dew combo at that time of year. Today's low 70s are just right, with maybe some wind to confound the skeeters.

AUG 91, GSP 64. Not often one sees SC that much cooler than Maine.

Mid-upper 70s with little wind, such that my garden work was accompanied by the whine from hordes of mosquitos. At least the deer flies have yet to appear, though I'm confident there will be squadrons of them assaulting us a week from now.

37 to 70s here - low dews, bright sun, high angle. May averages the greatest diurnal range here at just under 25°, with April 1.6 behind. Nov-Dec fight for the lowest range at 17.xy. May 2001 and 2018 each had an average range of 29.9°, while at the other end the silly-mild Dec 2015 range was only 12.7°.

IZG 32, same as here. Frozen dew atop vehicles. Whatever survived 25° on 5/18 just laughs at this morning.

32 this morning with frozen dew on car tops. That won't damage anything, as I've not even tilled the garden yet. (Today?) I think I know why the oak leaves were scorched and ash were not. Probably it was because the oak leaves were 1/3 full size while the ash leaves were just coming out of buds. Edit: IZG 32, BML 30, HIE 27

Only one good rumble last month, nothing this month, but the early month flood was not boring, especially for those behind washed-out roads. The 0.29" last evening along with the 1.83" last weekend while we were away brings the month to 6.35, and another 1.2" fell during the last few hours of April. Over 7.5" in 25 days but a 14-day stretch in the middle with only a couple of sprinkles.

The 25° low last Thursday spared the apple blossoms but partially scorched the leaves on the 2" diam. oak outside the back window. No sign of damage to adjacent white ash, which is usually more frost-sensitive than oak. Saw some light (so far) defoliation on tops of oaks along I-78 in NNJ and I-84 in CT. Also lots of dead ash trees, though some in NJ appear to be hanging on. No idea whether they're tolerant or on the way out, though they're in the midst of many dead neighbors, so I'm a bit hopeful. I've read that some white ash tolerates the beetle; green ash/brown ash, no such hope.

D for temps here with the mega-Grinch on 12/23, but no long thaws nor record-warm days. B+ for snow, with AN total and SDDs, 3 storms 10"+ including the 22" dump in mid-Dec. Normally those grades would average C/C+ but due to the big storm and good retention, I edged the overall grade to B-. One of the biggest NNE/SNE discrepancies I've seen; only 2007-08 is competitive, though with all sites N to S getting more that winter than 22-23.

Like many garden plants, an inch per week is often recommended, whether it's from the clouds or applied by the gardener. This month is something of a head-scratcher here for watering frequency - had 5.4" 4/30 thru 5/4 then only sprinkles for 15 days. Then 1.8" the night of 20-21 and another 3 tenths last night. Trees are less quickly water-stressed than veggies/flowers, though newly transplanted trees warrant watering almost daily as about 90% of their roots are left behind when dug for transplanting. I transplanted several small (18-30" tall) white pines shortly after the early-month deluge, and watered them every 2nd day thru the 16th before traveling 17th-23rd. Your oaks should be fine with the 1"/week total as the frost did no harm to the root system. (Also, oaks as a genus are more drought-resistant than most other New England deciduous trees, though adequate water ensures top vigor.)

We do a 2-step, with monthly doses HeartGuard and NextGuard from about 5/1 thru 11/1. Ticks won't go into her fur and her being a yellow Lab mix makes spotting the beasts easy. These meds are wolfed down while Buttercup wouldn't touch Bravecto without a liberal addition of canned cat food. Mr. Tamarack, on another subject, i have some young (5-10 years) oak trees that were budding and had small leaves when the frost hit a couple weeks ago. now all the vegetation is dead/wilted. will these trees come back? a couple I don't care a lot about, but there is one (the older of the 4) that I really don't want to be dead. thoughts? My guess is that they will produce a new set of leaves, possibly a bit smaller than if the frost-kill had not occurred. The 22/26/25° sequence of May 11-13, 2010 destroyed the new leaves of our oak, ash and some of the maples, and all re-grew foliage. It's a strain on the tree, as anyone who's seen the effects of multi-year Gypsy (now "spongey") moth defoliation. Our trees were much older but if yours were vigorous in previous years, they should withstand one year's frost toasting. (Somehow, last Thursday's 25° morning failed to touch leaves or apple blossoms here.)

We were using the monthly meds, tried Brevecto a couple years back and within 10 minutes we were cleaning $60 off the living room rug. Back to monthly.

Arborvitae is usually the trade name for Northern white cedar, Thuja occidentalis. In its natural habitat in the forest, it's a favored food for deer, also an important tree for deer wintering areas. What arboriculturists have done thru careful breeding, I've no idea, but sometimes a single branch can lead to trees with much different appearances and characteristics. I've read that it was a single branch, a "sport" in the trade, that spawned all the Crimson King variety of Norway maple that one finds all over.

Unless I've mis-copied the ENS data presented here by red taggers, we had 3 ninas 1998-99 thru 2000-01 just since I moved to the Maine foothills. The period 2010-11 thru 2014-15 began with 2 ninas then 3 nadas, 5 years with no ninos. Farther back, the period 1970-71 thru 1975-76 included 5 ninas with only the strong nino of 1972-73 breaking up the 6-year run. It`s entirely possible we could observe some daily record lows with values in the teens to mid 20s in the Dacks and Northeast Kingdom and to the upper 20s to lower 30s in the broad valleys. Just when I thought our apple blossoms were safe. Even GYX whispered about possible teens in northern valleys within their CWA. Latest we've gone below 25 was 5/14/20, a very cold spring with phenology running more than 10 days behind. We had 25 on 5/20/02, but that followed 4 weeks of 5° BN temps with 6.2" snow 4/26-29 and another 0.3" on 5/13, again a late-blooming spring. This year is 5-7 days ahead of average so we're vulnerable to late killer frost.

Did some number noodling to compare accuracy of the predictions. DIT only guessed for 9 sites, so I used those sites to compare. There were 8 others who made predictions for the 9 sites, though all 8 also made other predictions. The average prediction of the 9 was 61.9" and the actual total was 33.7". Thus, the average prediction was 184% of the actual. DIT's predictions averaged 46.2", closest to the actual at 137%. Next closest was 151% and the rest were at 171% to 228% of the actual. DIT predicted only one NNE site, Dryslot, who finished at 86.3". Average prediction was 83.7", or 97% of the actual, and ranged from 64" (DIT) to 101". Ginx gets the blue ribbon for his 87", only 0.7" off the actual.

Two weeks ago today, the Carrabassett River recorded its 2md highest peak flow in its 90+ year history and the Sandy marked its 4th highest, similar POR. This morning both rivers are under their 25th percentile flow, the flashier Carrabassett closer to its record low than 25th percentile. Ten rain-free days with low RH and trees ramping up their water demand has made for a rather precipitous (pun intended) drop in those rivers.

Another 31 this morning. May be upper 20s here Thursday morning, probably not low enough to damage the apple blossoms, which will be near full by then. Lots of bee action in the few that had opened last Saturday - good sign. We plan to be in SNJ by Wed night, and they're expecting 40 or upper 30s even down there the following morning.

Fire in the stove, light frost earlier here, possibly more mid-week. Nothing special - median date for last frost is 5/24.

Bumper crop in many places that spring. Oddly, the Friday before our bug-infested trip north, I was in the Rangeley country helping to scope out a snowmobile trail, and there were almost no black flies. On Sunday I opined that the bugs might not be too bad, then next day at Coffins' store in Portage Lake, we were getting pounded in the parking lot despite the full sun and upper 80s. Maybe I should revise my opinion?

Your total ranks 3rd, only 0.4" below J.Spin and 2.6" away from Phin in 1st. 48 forum members signed up (your entry makes 49) and 14 never made an entry, a 15th made only one, so just 34 "real" participants this year. Most of the no-entries were from stink-winter regions, but not all.