tamarack

From the west side of the pond one can probably see the higher hills (1300' in Vienna and Rome) in the Kennebec Highlands.

Yesterday was a near perfect summer day, 75/54 with dews 60 or below. It was also slightly BN, only the 6th BN day for the month. Despite that 25-to-6 advantage the month was only 2.2° AN, though that's 4th warmest of 23 Julys here. Avg max: 76.6 0.2 AN and the median value of the 23 Julys. Avg. min: 58.8 4.2 AN and the mildest July minimum by 1.1° Warmest: 84 on 20th. Warmest minimum: 70 on the 27th, only the 2nd 70+ low here. Coolest: 51 on the 17th. July coolest 1998-2019 range from 37 to 46. That 33° monthly range ties Nov. 1998 for the lowest in any month. Ironically, June's 63° is tops for that month. Precip: 5.84" 1.88" AN Biggest one-day RA was 1.54" on the 10th, remains of Fay. Yearly precip up to 27.32", a modest 0.18" AN.

Our system has hot water thru the oil-fired boiler but the tank is tiny - 2 or 3 gallons and up near the joists, just enough to cover that initial surge before the boiler kicks in. Running the boiler in summer adds to the oil bill but it also helps keep the basement from getting too musty.

A dozen or so years ago I built a 6-ft-square compost bin out of small (3"diam.) cedar logs, stacking rather than notching them to allow airflow. Don't shovel dirt atop - wood ashes serve that purpose. Bears are uncommon in my part of the woods; one probably wanders thru every so often but in 22 years only 2 have been noted, the 2nd bagged by a friend who asked to hunt on our woodlot. Having never eaten bear meat I was hoping for a piece (one should never ask) but the carcass was handled poorly and I think it ended up feeding someone's dogs. Being a meat hunter, I won't kill a bear (short of self-defense) unless I've eaten the meat and found it very good.

Had 3.5" in 2 hours in NNJ from "Doria", August 1971. Storm total was 5.1" and with the previous day's PRE dumping 3.8" we had nearly 9" in about 20 hours. Things had been quite dry so flooding was surprisingly modest.

I thought that 495 was just the connector between 295 and 95 north of PWM. And "Suckerville" probably (hopefully ) refers to fish - sucker-gigging used to be a rite of spring, not so much nowadays.

Another one well south (along with the nice echoes well north.) It's like the Whites help sustain the TS but the Mahoosucs kill them - or something. Still have not seen a single lightning bolt this year, even after a significant amount of time on my front porch waiting and watching as thunder arrives. Of course we scored multiple times June 28-July 14 but it's been pretty scratchy since then. Our 2-day expert peer-review field trip is this coming Tues-Wed, probably means we get Isaias. Having been gully-washed in NW Maine by the remains of Katrina in 2005 and dodging multiple TS (not always successfully) on these trips 2 years later, c'est la vie.

Wow! For contrast, I was a lifeguard 4 years at the NNJ lake where I grew up and had one rescue - and on that I merely swam out to the swimmer in trouble and accompanied him in, never had to touch him. In the 90 years of that community, there has never been a drowning at either of the 2 beaches, and on a busy day there would be perhaps 300 total at the beaches. The only drowning was at a tenth-acre "feeder pond" one late winter 45-50 years ago when a 2-year-old went thru the rotting ice.

Have not gone swimming in the ocean for 25-30 years. With my spinal fusion at C-4 in 2011, I probably should keep it that way. When I'd body-surf at Reid or Popham, occasionally I'd mis-time a wave and get driven head first into the bottom.

Average temp here is 77/55 and that's the warmest average of the year. Over 22 years here, July's coolest mornings have ranged from 37 (2007) to 46 (2006) with no month having fewer than 3 sub-50 minima. This July the bottom will be 51, a quantum leap from the past. To date we've had 10 mornings at 60+ and tomorrow might make it 11. In 2010 it was 15. The month has had only 33° temp range from highest to lowest, and though it will finish with 26 days AN and 5 BN, the end result will be about a modest +2.3, currently 4th warmest of 23 and possibly 3rd (only 0.09° behind 2006 thru yesterday) but well short of 1999 and 2010.

Weak ENSO has generally been good here, with some obvious exceptions.

Two co-workers got filmed during the show's Maine run, one with the robo-partridge decoy (his son did everything right, plus spotting the wardens/film crew) and one with ATVs going past his home at 50+ on the town road. Neither made it past the "cutting room" floor.

You've seen enough "North Woods Law" shows to know what to do.

Can't say I've seen a hemlock over 100', or at least way over. However, there are superstory pines all over northern Maine that are 120'+. Some in southern Maine too - one spot that stands out is in the woods between Sabbathday Lake and the Shaker village on Route 26. Another is the Gardiner forest in South Gardiner -30+ years ago I tallied pines there that had 6 logs of 16' each plus 25-35' of topwood. I think those trees are still there.

Some oddities on that list. Balsam fir's shade tolerance is only a teeny bit less than that of hemlock, the only species on the list to earn an "S" for light. Also, seeing yellow birch listed as the tallest tree - 100' when nothing else is listed at over 80 - is weird. White pine is the state's tallest native tree by a significant amount. Also, the species with the greatest volume in the Maine forest, red spruce, isn't even listed. (Maybe like the St. John Valley Francophones, they lump red with black spruce, though they use the label "red spruce" - epinette rouge - for tamarack!)

I've read that great whites can partially thermoregulate, thus can remain active in colder waters than can most shark species.

If Maine can have 2 tornados during a Thanksgiving snowstorm (2005), anything is possible here. (Except a strong TC)

I doubt that a shark would make it past The Chops, but Pit 2 is downriver from there so you better not dangle your toes in the water.

Black locust is also quite rot resistant; don't know if honey locust is similar. Black locust can also become an invasive in the Northeast, outside its native range, spreading mostly by root sprouts. And despite its spreading roots, a lot blew down when Bob came thru, whether due to weak roots or crowns atop a long lever arm I can't say. (Crummy color in fall, too.)

I think "Hardy to -20" may be conservative. The ones on the U. Maine campus in Orono were doing fine last time I looked and once the Stillwater River freezes it gets cold there.

It's what I would've said had I not gone to bed before midnight. White ash will do well in well- and moderately well drained soils and okay in somewhat poorly drained. They like fertility but one shouldn't fertilize a fall transplant until the next spring, as the fall fert. may cause a growth spurt that gets wrecked by frost. Ash seeds (from all species native to Maine at least) look a bit like tiny airplane propellers, and can get carried a long way by the wind. The Dec. 1992 storm that buried ORH produced nothing but wind at our (then) Gardiner home, but there had been a good white ash seed crop and next spring we had about 10 germinants per square foot, sometimes more, and also right in front of our house despite all the ash being out back.

It's a "least harm" type of dilemma and I'm glad not to involved in making those decisions. We've seen that a significant minority of students are poorly served (or in some cases not served at all) by distance teaching, and it's often extremely hard on teachers as well. Finding the right balance between an inevitable spread of COVID-19, whether minor or huge, and tens of millions of kids getting a year (including last spring) of crappy education is incredibly difficult, since whatever decisions are made some people will be harmed by them.

38 44 54 (X2 or 3 - does Hazel count?) 60? (Did Donna make landfall in New England, or offer Cat 1 winds in the region?) long jump 85 91 That's 6-8 from 1900 forward (assuming none 1900-37) - looks more like a 20-year periodicity unless I'm missing something. Of course, 20 yr period isn't 20/40/60/80 due to the stochastic nature of wx.

Seems a bit odd to me - chest looks deeper than normal for last year's calf and late-July antlers too small for a 2018 birth, but they're all different in antler size and growth phenology. I'm guessing it's class of 2019 and headed for being a really big bull. In late May 30 years ago when we were canoeing/fishing on Spencer stream (about 5 miles north of Flagstaff Lake), we were trying to get back down to our campsite at dusk but two large bulls blocked the stream. They each already had antlers about 3 feet wide. One departed from the stream (probably with tummy full of eelgrass) and when the other wandered to within 10' of the left shore of the 80'-wide stream we had our chance - we thought. As we approached, the bull decided he needed to exit right, passing about 10' from our bow as we frantically backwatered. No raised neck hair (on the moose - plenty on us) so he wasn't attacking but likely would've plowed right thru us had we been in his path. (I was paddling stern. In the bow was a guest missionary who had never seen a moose before this trip. Nearly got to give one a hug.)

Longest in my adult life was 4 days in 1998, plus 4-5 hours next day - probably intentional shutoffs to protect lineworkers nearby. Had anything broken in the 400' between Brunswick Avenue and our place, it would've been more like 14 days than 4. The 1953 ice storm in NNJ took out our power for 6 days, but we didn't worry about losing internet or charging our cellphones back then. At my age (almost 7) it was a great adventure. Have yet to lose power due to a TC, only ice storms, wet snow and traffic accidents.