tamarack

Welcome to the board. I lurked for a year or more before joining, back in the Eastern days. Having spent Thanksgiving week in the Olympia area in both 1995 and '96, my impression for RA there was "some every day" - the November joke is that it only rains once that month, lasting 1st to 30th. However, in those 2 weeks there were only 2 all-day rains, and w/o a gauge I'd estimate neither reached 2". IIRC, Seattle averages a bit under 40"/year and Olympia probably isn't much different, with Port Angeles (closer to Olympics' rain shadow) about 10" less. Without checking stats, I'd guess your current area has big rain events - 3"/4"+ in 24 hours - more often than the communities on the inner part of Puget Sound.

Not New England, but some from my former life in NNJ - chronological, not prioritized: Nov. 1950 Apps Gale - my 1st wx memory. Watched trees thrashing until tops began falling, at which point dad thought it wise to go inside. Jan. 1953 Ice Storm - 45 years (to the day) prior to #1, above. 6 days w/o power, probably piqued my interest both in wx and trees. March 1956 - 24" dump, my first big snowstorm. Feb. 1961 - 24" or more atop a 25"+ pack, greatest depth in NJ records. NYC's strongest Feb wind. New Year's Eve 1962 - Winds gusting probably to 70 (uprooted huge bare-limbed oaks) with temp 5/-8, vies with 11/50 for strongest winds I've seen. Backside winds from the storm that ate BGR. Jan. 1966 - Baltimore blizzard, 15-18" pow at mid teens, winds gusting 50s, some side streets remained impassible a week later. Aug. 1971 - PRE plus TS Doria, 8.9" RA in about 20 hours. Top winds about same as Hazel, Bob (gusts approaching 60)

I think that's the trail under the summit lift - assuming they still have the same general configuration. The then-named Mountain Chair climbed up to about 3,000' (in 15 minutes - excruciating on a bitter day) and then one poled across nearly level ground to climb aboard the summit chair. Back in 71-72, that upper lift line trail was called Scotch Mist, keeping with the area's Highland theme, and it was not only narrow and bony, but had all those steel obstacles down the middle. No thanks! During the '71 ski week I went to the summit about 3 times after the 8" Tuesday snowfall, and it didn't look like more than a handful of tracks had been made by Saturday early (GE used to offer an hour of free skiing 7:30-8:30 for "conditions check.) The trail under the Mountain Chair had poles down the middle too (duh!) but was about 3X as wide and the moguls were all snow, not thinly covered boulders. The day after the snow it was near zero all day with winds gusting to 50 and the sun a dim spot through the cornmeal flurries. I wouldn't even try the slo-mo Mountain Chair that day, especially after getting a touch of frostbite just walking from car to lodge. Fortunately there was a 2,500' lift that gained about 500' elevation in 5 minutes, and I rode that one almost to closing time. After about 2:30 I'd get to the top and say "Last run - can't stand the ride." Then I'd make lots of turns and be warmed up and do it again. I don't think there were ever a dozen skiers on that hill all day, and by late afternoon maybe just one.

Learned to ski parallel there during a ski-week almost 50 years ago. (Incredibly inexpensive - entire ski-weeks were just $45 and they cut that in half for that January!) Went back for a short weekend a year later and still regret not talking Upper FIS. I was skiing as good as I ever achieved, perhaps low-end intermediate, conditions were good, the trail is wide and was deserted. Did ski the much narrower black diamond (name forgotten) to the left of the main lift line - used to be The Cliff - and had a great run.

It's all good - thanks.

Thanks for your work in setting up this fun site once again. Will we need new usernames and passwords, or will the ones from last year still work?

The friend who introduced me to boletus Betula had a 2-inch-thick book on mushroom ID, stating which were poisonous, which were good eating, and a lot which were labeled "not poisonous" - probably the ones like shelf mushrooms that are hard as wood. His tongue-in-cheek method of testing for poison was "Take a bite and wait 20 minutes. If you start feeling dizzy don't eat any more." (Some of the most deadly ones don't show symptoms until 4-6 hours after consumption, and have no antidote.)

It's the season for birch boletes - stocky 'shrooms, a reddish cap with pores rather than gills, and a stout stem. Likes birches and aspens, and quite tasty. Its relative boletus edulis is said to be even better but I've never found one. They live in the spruce-fir woods. Puffballs are pretty good as well if you catch them early. One bit of brownish interior makes them trash.

Ice storm: December 2008. About an inch and a half of ice at 31F. Amazing event. Most people posting on here were on the forums for this one so they've seen all the pics and such even if they didn't directly experience it. Can't match January 1998 up in NNE but basically no ice storm can. Comparing just worst-to-worst, they may have been close (though the "Godzilla effect" high tension towers in Quebec are indeed unmatched.) But 1998 tore things apart from Montreal to Machias - can't recall another ice storm that covered nearly that much area.

Probably peaked about 10' above MHW, though I've not read anything official. That SSE wind was trying to push all of Penobscot Bay up the river. Of the 200 or so cars flooded (and totaled - BGR temp dropped from 57 to 1 that afternoon/eve), only a single car had been occupied. The woman climbed onto the roof (BDN had a dramatic pic) and a fellow swam out and made the rescue. Just like Hollywood, they got married about 6 months later. (AKAIK, they were strangers at the time of the flood.) We'd had a lesser thaw (43F, 0.20" RA) just 6 days earlier which froze up many culverts, so the ice holes on roads were challenging. Heard news that one in Baker Brook, NB, about 7 miles from Ft. Kent, was deep enough to snare a log truck. That 1st year in FK had as much wx drama as any 2 other years: 1/1: Moved to FK. 1/12: -41, welcome to the St. John Valley. (9th-13th avg minima -34) 2/2: Groundhog gale. 5/7: 1.5" snow in 45 minutes as I tilled the garden. 8/10: 6" RA from the remains of Belle, nearly washed away neighbor's house, ruins our garden. Backyard looked like river bottom stones/gravel. 11/14: (not exactly weather, but snow OG helped) 1st Maine deer. Lo-o-o-ng drag 12/26-30: 36" in 2 storms, 2nd of which accompanied the last 370 miles driving home from family Christmas in NJ. CAR going from +1C to -8C in one hour I impressive on the '76 cold front. My 5-hr drop from +7C to -21C blows away any other CF of my experience.

lol. Feb heat wave (CAR +14.7 for the month) St. John and Allagash ice runs. My top 5 (with then-current residence): Jan 1998 ice storm (Gardiner) April 1987 Kennebec flood (Gardiner) April 1982 blizzard (Fort Kent) Bob (Gardiner) Feb. 2, 1976 SE gale (Fort Kent) Temp 44 to -6 in 5 hr, CAR 957 mb, BGR 200 cars drowned as Penobscot estuary rises 15 feet in 15 minutes, Stonington gust 110+. Honorable mentions (both New Sharon): Dec 6-7, 2003 (24" blizz), Pi Day 2017 (2nd strongest blizz after 4/82)

Perhaps get a firm ID on the bugs, then look for the appropriate variety of BT, the biological insecticide which has been adapted for numerous insect families, each working only on that family (BT for Diptera [flies and mosquitos], as an example, won't harm bees.)

The leaves in your pic (right side) look a bit wider than cherry leaves around here, but the bark is cherry - no other tree in the area has that blocky black skin. If you can reach a twig, a scrape of the bark offers that "bitter almond" aroma diagnostic for the genus, which includes chokecherry (more a bush than tree) and pincherry, also called fire cherry as it's often on of the first trees after fire or clearcut. It grows about as large as striped maple though it cannot tolerate shade.

Agree. The sinuses are too deep for black oak, and though the full tree pic doesn't show pin oak's frequent horizontal (or lower) branch character, that facet is usually seen in open-grown street trees. In the forest the tree grows much like other oaks, though it's prone to epicormic branches (none seen in the pic) unless it's in dense woods.

Not PC In the plant nursery business, trees like striped maple are called "snakebark maple." And slippery elm is relatively uncommon in the Northeast, such that I've never bothered to learn how it's different from American elm.

I don't think so - no new lesions or fruiting bodies visible. Looks like that tree had some early issues with wet snow and/or ice, but was able to grow out of it.

If you do any clearing near that tree, be super carful not to cause any damage to it. The blight is out there and I've been disappointed by minor wounds leading to blight numerous times.

Definitely not black cherry - too wide and too glossy. One test for the cherry genus is to scrape some bark and sniff for "bitter almond". The bottom 2 pics look something like glossy buckthorn (which despite the name has no thorns) but the little points on the leaves in the top 2 don't match as well. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Have you seen any berries or such? The buckthorns have small berries that run from dark green to red to almost black. That chestnut is larger than some (blighted and gone now) from which I've picked nuts, but those were getting more sun than yours appears to get. Since chestnuts are monoecious, both male and female trees would need to flower in order to get nuts, though a lone female will produce sterile husks.

EAB has also slipped across into Maine, from NH in the south and from NB in the north. On my woodlot, about 100 miles from the southern Maine beetle beachhead, white ash is the 3rd most abundant species - red maple is 1st and fir 2nd - plus there's a considerable amount of brown ash. Without human assistance the insect population is said to advance about 2 miles per year - much faster when people carelessly move infested wood. WA appears to include a very small percentage that survive EAB while no such resistance has been seen for brown. Given the cultural importance of brown ash to Maine's indigenous peoples, the beetle could be a real disaster for them.

I think that practice was a tip (pun intended) from "Crockett's Victory Garden."

All season long I cut off the side stems to keep the plants to a single stem. Over the weekend I cut off the topmost growth shoot so the plants will no longer attempt to lengthen. Will need to do more shoot pruning as the plants keep trying to extend the vine.

It's rather comical at this point. Spend all this money for lawn looks, and have a field to look at. Will need to drill another well to get any real irrigation, but that's a very costly project. I don't think I've seen it look this bad I wouldn't recommend tossing $10K at a new well just for the lawn, especially since that granite block on which you sit may not yield any more for from hole #2 than from #1. Garden explosion. Cukes are sweet as heck. Basil gone wild. BGW. Only fail so far has been green beans. Made a pesto with basil, garlic, olive oil and pine nuts. Off the hook Our garden is about 180° from yours, so far. Cukes haven't even blossomed while last year we were giving them away, while the green beans are in full production. I plant them sequentially over a 5-week period because we much prefer them uncooked, but we sometimes get overwhelmed and blanch a bunch for the freezer - may happen again in the next couple weeks. Cherry tomatoes almost ready for the pick to start, and I've begun nipping off the tops so the fruit already started gets all the plants' efforts. Goal is to ripen all the fruit before frost rather than grow bigger vines and try to do the indoors ripening with hundreds of greenies rather than the couple dozen we get even with top-stopping.

Had an 8-week stretch that "summer" (early June-early August) with only 7 days that it didn't rain. Coolest July of 22 here, 2nd coolest June and coolest met summer despite AN August (in which sun and convective precip finally appeared.)

Probably by a factor of about 10 every 3 weeks or so. In 2-3 months a solo queen can bring the nest to a thousand or more. When I lived on the farm I torched one and then dug out the mammoth 4 foot by 3 foot nest. Insane What a giant! Fortunately, in the instance noted above, there was no dig needed, only fill as the burnout was total.

Wait for the next sub-60 morning and get them at first light. I'd use one of those long-distance wasp killer sprays, from 4-5 feet away. If none come out in response, plop a rock on the hole big enough to block it, so the chemical is trapped with the insects. The year that paper wasps colonized the rock wall along our driveway (3 stings for me and 5 for my wife), I picked a 50° morning to flip the rock under which they'd nested, and got plenty of juice on them before any became airborne - and none made it more than 2 feet from the nest. My dad used to do the gasoline method at our grandparents' summer place with it's 3/4-acre lawn that averaged 2-3 nests per mowing. He'd go out in late evening, dump the half cup and light it. On one particularly large nest (judged by swarm size when disturbed, there was a washtub-size hole in the ground the next morning.