CoolHandMike

Sun starting to poke through here. My back yard station says this: Like everyone else here, I'm really hoping for some rain later today.

Nice vintage electronics! Sorta-kinda but not really related, I inherited one of those old console-bureau-side-table-cabinet things with a stereo on the middle and a record player on the right from one of my grandparents. I wish I still had it, but it got too much mold damage in storage about 10 years ago and would have taken too much money and effort to properly restore it. Speaking of bees, they have always been freakishly attracted to me for some reason. My parents used to think I was being overdramatic as a kid, but all throughout my life, I'll be standing among a group of people and I'll the one the bees always seem to want to divebomb. I've even been bit by a carpenter bee through a pants leg. Needless to say, I grew up TERRIFIED of killer bees.

I let mine grow for two weeks before mowing it last Friday, and honestly I probably could have left the front (full afternoon sun) for another week. The back (half sun, half shade) was already going to seed though. My wife wants to set up sprinklers but I'm against it as I don't feel it's environmentally responsible (nor friendly to our water bill). According to the GFS, it looks like this period of high pressure "doming" over the MA should end by Wednesday with more a more zonal pattern setting up for the foreseeable future. That should help our drought condition a little bit.

Well I guess if I haven't seen any cicadas by now, it's safe to say I won't (at least in my back yard). Oh well. Waiting for lightning bugs now!

Wife came home with a baker's dozen of new plants to put in one of our new mulch beds yesterday. She figured she'd plant them while I was mowing last evening, no problem, right? WRONG. Turns out my soil back there is SO compact that I needed to attack it with a pick axe and a 3" auger to break it up. She had one plant barely in the ground after I finished mowing (after about 45 minutes) and was near tears because there was no way we were going to be able to get these all in before it got too dark (and then too hot/gross this weekend). So I put off the string trimming until later and jumped in. Queue one marathon, 2-hour digging/picking/drilling sweat-fest later and we juuust got them in before the light completely went on us. Holy smokes were we drenched. Humidity came up quick last night! But in the end, well worth the effort. It's going to look awesome when they all grow up.

I just measured my back yard soil temps with a digital meat thermometer, which, admittedly, only went a couple of inches deep. I measured between 75-80°F in the sunny spots, but only 64°F under my biggest shade tree (box elder). I'm relatively certain most of my big trees are quite a bit older than 17 years, so we will see. My other trees are mostly maples and some hemlocks.

Seeing 89.9°F and 23% RH in my back yard. Now that's a dry heat. I can't recall experiencing this since I left California many years ago!

Yeah none in Reading though I think I might have seen some of their burrows at Blue Marsh Reservoir last night. Didn't see any shells on the trees though.

Would anybody mind if I started a Cicada thread? I know there's one in the MA sub but I'm more interested in what's going on in our neck of the woods.

I think we've peaked for the day at 83.4°F but man is it dry out there. 24% RH.

It's actually kinda sorta raining here now. Juuust enough to make you go "hmm, I should probably pack up for the day and put all the lawn tools away" only to slow down to a barely noticeable drizzle once you do. Eh, I'll finish planting my shrubs tomorrow evening.

I'm actually going to skip mowing my lawn this week as it has hardly grown over the last 7 days. It is a little more humid today, but you're right, it's been exceptionally dry lately.

I think like three raindrops actually made it to the ground just now in Reading.

Say it ain't so. Dang.

Another lovely afternoon of watching the virga showers rolling along. 76°F and 21% RH here. Pressure on the downward trend.

Can't beat this weather with a stick. Been getting so much landscaping done on the new house--every day just thanking my lucky stars that I'll have humped something like 30 yards of mulch before it got grossly hot and humid out. One thing that I'm curious about is the wind. Has it always been this breezy out during this time of year and I've just never noticed? Seems like multiple days in a row where it's blowing 10-15 with 20mph gusts. Maybe it's because I've never worked outside for this long before, but I'm not sure. I don't remember it always being windy growing up around here.

76 and slightly breezy out, 67% RH. Really wish I'd built our fire ring already, but that project is a couple of weekends out at least. It's super pleasant sitting out on the deck though. I was hoping we'd get some more rain tonight since it's been so dry here. Hopefully we get a good soaking tomorrow.

We're now up to 70°F with 73% RH. Slight drizzle, feels gross out. Glad for the cloud cover--it'd probably be in the 80's again without it.

10 yards of mulch survived the night under a tarp and a lot of rocks; just had a couple small "drifts" of wood chips up against the SW side of the house. Temps peaked at almost 68°F here with winds blowing up to 10 from the west. Was an absolutely beautiful day to move a crap-ton of mulch. I think I move about 8 yards, but I did NOT want to be doing this in 80 degree weather tomorrow. Back side of the house is almost completely mulched in and it looks GOOD. My arms are jello!

I dunno, but my personal weather station sure picked a bad time to get all flakey. I was hoping to record some epic wind gusts today but it's intermittently going offline for some reason. Might have to change the batteries I think...

Wowzers. I'm getting more mulch delivered on Friday...

Same here and 38% humidity. Back deck is shaded and it's nice and breezy out, might go out for a bit and read. Still, glad we finished up moving a truckload of mulch around yesterday.

Got down to 41°F here this morning, now at 44. Time for some coffee and then I shift 8 yards of mulch from the driveway to the beds in the back yard before it gets too hot. Meh.

I'm with you man. But I'll take another summer like 2012 (I think) where it never really got too hot for too long. Low 70's, breezy days until September, please.

Sudden flizzard in Reading. Actually sticking to the ground a little bit. Surprise April snow shower!