Fall Banter and General Discussion

[WhitinsvilleWX]

Just now, Whineminster said:

We have a camp in NH....so I can't visit? Yeah.....ok. 

Yea, my boss has a camp in Jackman where he keeps his sled. I’m sure he’ll abide by the rules (eye role). 

[HoarfrostHubb]

13 minutes ago, Whineminster said:

We have a camp in NH....so I can't visit? Yeah.....ok. 

I think you will be fine. 

[PhineasC]

45 minutes ago, Whineminster said:

We have a camp in NH....so I can't visit? Yeah.....ok. 

Where in NH?

[PhineasC]

Loss of taste and smell seems like the most common symptom for the typical low-grade infections most people get. Followed by fatigue. Every single person I know who has COVID has the loss of taste and smell symptom first. I assume there is some other viral mechanism at work causing this because it isn't always accompanied by the congestion and stuffy nose that can cause similar symptoms with a cold.

The people I have spoken to about this said they just realized suddenly they couldn't smell or taste anything even with a clear nose and chest.

[Whineminster]

7 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Where in NH?

Ellsworth.  Basically we go up there....and fish, hike, split wood, and drink Dr. McGillicuddy's...that's basically it.  Rarely even hang out with the neighbors. 

[PhineasC]

5 minutes ago, Whineminster said:

Ellsworth.  Basically we go up there....and fish, hike, split wood, and drink Dr. McGillicuddy's...that's basically it.  Rarely even hang out with the neighbors. 

Sounds pretty sweet. I doubt anyone will hassle you there. It's not like you are going to VT after all. LOL

[OceanStWx]

1 hour ago, PhineasC said:

Loss of taste and smell seems like the most common symptom for the typical low-grade infections most people get. Followed by fatigue. Every single person I know who has COVID has the loss of taste and smell symptom first. I assume there is some other viral mechanism at work causing this because it isn't always accompanied by the congestion and stuffy nose that can cause similar symptoms with a cold.

The people I have spoken to about this said they just realized suddenly they couldn't smell or taste anything even with a clear nose and chest.

From what I've read it's the support cells (not the ones actually responsible for smell) that are susceptible to COVID infection. Inflammation of these cells leads to the loss of smell. Also interesting is that it appears to be the most common and first reported symptom in the majority of cases, so probably a better screener than fever or cough. 

[weathafella]

Ya never know.  A perfectly healthy thin person I know got Covid-19 and was so sick she ended up in the ICU.  She said good bye to her 10 year old son.  Thankfully she survived.   But she’s a long hauler-one of those people who’s body just doesn’t recover well even though they are negative.  Most have an easier course but it’s still unpredictable.  I was at the market today and became acutely aware how under rated supermarket personnel are as front line poorly paid workers taking on a lot more risk than most every day... 

[PhineasC]

3 minutes ago, weathafella said:

Ya never know.  A perfectly healthy thin person I know got Covid-19 and was so sick she ended up in the ICU.  She said good bye to her 10 year old son.  Thankfully she survived.   But she’s a long hauler-one of those people who’s body just doesn’t recover well even though they are negative.  Most have an easier course but it’s still unpredictable.  I was at the market today and became acutely aware how under rated supermarket personnel are as front line poorly paid workers taking on a lot more risk than most every day... 

Thank you for acknowledging the retail workers. All the talk about nurses, doctors, and teachers but no one ever considers the retail workers who have been on the job non-stop for months and exposed to thousands of people. They can’t telework like many teachers are doing now. Yet I never hear any of them complain or demand shutdowns...

[Rjay]

3 hours ago, PhineasC said:

Loss of taste and smell seems like the most common symptom for the typical low-grade infections most people get. Followed by fatigue. Every single person I know who has COVID has the loss of taste and smell symptom first. I assume there is some other viral mechanism at work causing this because it isn't always accompanied by the congestion and stuffy nose that can cause similar symptoms with a cold.

The people I have spoken to about this said they just realized suddenly they couldn't smell or taste anything even with a clear nose and chest.

 

1 hour ago, OceanStWx said:

From what I've read it's the support cells (not the ones actually responsible for smell) that are susceptible to COVID infection. Inflammation of these cells leads to the loss of smell. Also interesting is that it appears to be the most common and first reported symptom in the majority of cases, so probably a better screener than fever or cough. 

My first symptom was a sore throat. The next day I had chills and was sweating.   That night I started sneezing a lot which isn't common.  The 3rd day I had a low grade fever.  By day 4 my fever was gone and I felt like I had a nasty cold; headache, congestion, wet cough (not dry) and started getting fatigued quickly.  Day 5, I was finally able to get a covid swab (this was in March when it wasn't easy to get a test even as a healthcare worker) and I completely lost my sense of smell and taste.   On day 6 I could barely get out of bed and became short of breath with any activity.  Day 7 my test came back positive.  The same symptoms continued and on day 9 I started feeling a squeezing in my chest and my o2 saturation was around "90%".  I clearly had pneumonia.   Day 10,  I started getting very sharp pains in my chest where my heart is located. This symptom was constant for 3 more weeks and still hasn't completely gone away.  I was fatigued for 40+ days.   This virus is scary af and I didn't even have a severe case.  

 

**Oh and my sense of smell and taste came back after 6 weeks.   

**I started feeling better between days 20-22  but wasn't close to 100% (besides the chest pain I still feel sometimes) for 2 months.

[natedizel]

1 hour ago, Rjay said:

 

My first symptom saw a sore throat. The next day I had chills and was sweating.   That night I started sneezing a lot which isn't common.  The 3rd day I had a low grade fever.  By day 4 my fever was gone and I felt like I had a nasty cold; headache, congestion, wet cough (not dry) and started getting fatigued quickly.  Day 5, I was finally able to get a covid swab (this was in March when it wasn't easy to get a test even as a healthcare worker) and I completely lost my sense of smell and taste.   On day 6 I could barely get out of bed and became short of breath with any activity.  Day 7 my test came back positive.  The same symptoms continued and on day 9 I started feeling a squeezing in my chest and my o2 saturation was around "90%".  I clearly had pneumonia.   Day 10,  I started getting very sharp pains in my chest where my heart is located. This symptom was constant for 3 more weeks and still hasn't completely gone away.  I was fatigued for 40+ days.   This virus is scary af and I didn't even have a severe case.  

 

**Oh and my sense of smell and taste came back after 6 weeks.   

**I started feeling better between days 20-22  but wasn't close to 100% (besides the chest pain I still feel sometimes) for 2 months.

Dude that must be scary AF being short of breath. Its basically slowly drowning. Must be awful

[HoarfrostHubb]

7 hours ago, PhineasC said:

Thank you for acknowledging the retail workers. All the talk about nurses, doctors, and teachers but no one ever considers the retail workers who have been on the job non-stop for months and exposed to thousands of people. They can’t telework like many teachers are doing now. Yet I never hear any of them complain or demand shutdowns...

My son was a retail worker from March-September (seasonal). He never complained about the virus itself or wearing a mask despite being outdoors doing lifting, etc. he mostly complained about the assholes who would get in his face about masks etc. 

I have had grocery store workers complain a little to me but again mostly about the customers who treated them poorly. 
 

Our son’s GF is a CNA and has been working on floors with Covid.  She has not complained about the virus but about PPE etc early on. 
 

 

[BrianW]

@dendrite I am involved with the land trust here and we just got approval to start planting the blight resistant American Chestnut. A couple hundred saplings are going in this spring. 

To restore this beloved tree, we will need every tool available. It’s taken 26 years of research involving a team of more than 100 university scientists and students here at the not-for-profit American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project, but we’ve finally developed a nonpatented, blight-resistant American chestnut tree.

[ORH_wxman]

21 minutes ago, BrianW said:

@dendrite I am involved with the land trust here and we just got approval to start planting the blight resistant American Chestnut. A couple hundred saplings are going in this spring. 

To restore this beloved tree, we will need every tool available. It’s taken 26 years of research involving a team of more than 100 university scientists and students here at the not-for-profit American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project, but we’ve finally developed a nonpatented, blight-resistant American chestnut tree.

That’s pretty awesome. My grandparents had a full nut-producing American Chestnut tree in their backyard in the 1980s and into the early 1990s. We noticed the trunk started cracking in about 1993 or 1994 and by 1995 it was clearly going to kill the tree so they cut it down. 

I didn’t realize until years later how relatively rare it was to still have a fully mature healthy tree like that as late as the early 1990s. But it made sense in retrospect because they lived out in the sticks and had a huge yard....and the tree was toward the middle of the yard away from any other trees. The isolation probably kept it alive for so long. 

I knew someone who had one that was healthy even a lot more recently than that but it eventually succumbed around 8-10 years ago. 

[PhineasC]

8 hours ago, Rjay said:

 

My first symptom was a sore throat. The next day I had chills and was sweating.   That night I started sneezing a lot which isn't common.  The 3rd day I had a low grade fever.  By day 4 my fever was gone and I felt like I had a nasty cold; headache, congestion, wet cough (not dry) and started getting fatigued quickly.  Day 5, I was finally able to get a covid swab (this was in March when it wasn't easy to get a test even as a healthcare worker) and I completely lost my sense of smell and taste.   On day 6 I could barely get out of bed and became short of breath with any activity.  Day 7 my test came back positive.  The same symptoms continued and on day 9 I started feeling a squeezing in my chest and my o2 saturation was around "90%".  I clearly had pneumonia.   Day 10,  I started getting very sharp pains in my chest where my heart is located. This symptom was constant for 3 more weeks and still hasn't completely gone away.  I was fatigued for 40+ days.   This virus is scary af and I didn't even have a severe case.  

 

**Oh and my sense of smell and taste came back after 6 weeks.   

**I started feeling better between days 20-22  but wasn't close to 100% (besides the chest pain I still feel sometimes) for 2 months.

This sounds like a pretty severe case to me. Most infections are much milder than this. 

[Rjay]

1 hour ago, PhineasC said:

This sounds like a pretty severe case to me. Most infections are much milder than this. 

Considering all the death I've seen and having coworkers vented, it was a moderate case.  

[PhineasC]

Just now, Rjay said:

Considering all the death I've seen and having coworkers vented, it was a moderate case.  

Yikes, well sounds like you have been in a bit of an epicenter for COVID.

Every single person I know who has gotten the virus had the smell/taste thing and some fatigue, that was it. We all have had different experiences. Based on mine, your infection sounds like it was really nasty. Serious breathing issues is a major complication.

We did have one distant relation who was very, very ill with heart failure and cancer die with COVID as a complication, but he was in really bad shape already.

[Rjay]

16 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Yikes, well sounds like you have been in a bit of an epicenter for COVID.

Every single person I know who has gotten the virus had the smell/taste thing and some fatigue, that was it. We all have had different experiences. Based on mine, your infection sounds like it was really nasty. Serious breathing issues is a major complication.

We did have one distant relation who was very, very ill with heart failure and cancer die with COVID as a complication, but he was in really bad shape already.

Half my place is inpatient rehab.  The other half is a nusing home.   A lot of this took place in March and April in my area.  

[PhineasC]

9 minutes ago, Rjay said:

Half my place is inpatient rehab.  The other half is a nusing home.   A lot of this took place in March and April in my area.  

Yeah, that explains some things. I'm sure you have seen the worst of COVID and then some.

[HIPPYVALLEY]

47 minutes ago, Rjay said:

Considering all the death I've seen and having coworkers vented, it was a moderate case.  

Holy smokes!  We don’t even know anyone in NW MA that has had it.   6 positives in Franklin Co this week.  One hospitalization. 

[dendrite]

4 hours ago, BrianW said:

@dendrite I am involved with the land trust here and we just got approval to start planting the blight resistant American Chestnut. A couple hundred saplings are going in this spring. 

To restore this beloved tree, we will need every tool available. It’s taken 26 years of research involving a team of more than 100 university scientists and students here at the not-for-profit American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project, but we’ve finally developed a nonpatented, blight-resistant American chestnut tree.

Nice. So these are the GMO "Darling" trees from Suny-ESF? As far as I know those weren't given the government approval yet, but maybe they know more than what has been publicly released yet. If so, that's awesome news. I actually purchased a bunch of seeds online this fall and I have them stratifying in the fridge now. Come spring I'll directly plant the seeds and let them freely root their taproot on their own.

If anyone is around me and wants a few let me know.

[DavisStraight]

6 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Nice. So these are the GMO "Darling" trees from Suny-ESF? As far as I know those weren't given the government approval yet, but maybe they no more than what has been publicly released yet. If so, that's awesome news. I actually purchased a bunch of seeds online this fall and I have them stratifying in the fridge now. Come spring I'll directly plant the seeds and let them freely root their taproot on their own.

If anyone is around me and wants a few let me know.

I see a lot of the chestnut when I inspect older houses, great versatile wood, was great for building and burning. Would love to see it make a comeback.

[DavisStraight]

Don't let a moose lick you car, you guys in Maine better watch out

 

Canadian officials urge motorists not to let moose lick their cars (yahoo.com)

[tamarack]

4 hours ago, BrianW said:

@dendrite I am involved with the land trust here and we just got approval to start planting the blight resistant American Chestnut. A couple hundred saplings are going in this spring. 

To restore this beloved tree, we will need every tool available. It’s taken 26 years of research involving a team of more than 100 university scientists and students here at the not-for-profit American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project, but we’ve finally developed a nonpatented, blight-resistant American chestnut tree.

Were those trees developed thru crossbreeding with Chinese chestnut or by lab work?  (Just curious, and hoping the resistance is permanent and many get planted.)

If American chestnuts can avoid all wounds they are fairly resistant.  Unfortunately, wounds are part of every tree's life.  There used to be a very attractive grove next to the Maine Forest Service entomology lab in Augusta.  Planted in 1969, by the mid 1990s they were 65' tall and arrow straight - oldtimers said they were the best representatives of pre-blight chestnuts they'd seen.  Then came Jan. 1998 and many broken branches; all those trees were dead 2 years later.  

I see a lot of the chestnut when I inspect older houses, great versatile wood, was great for building and burning. Would love to see it make a comeback.

The NNJ lake community where I lived 1950-71 began in 1930 as a seasonal place, and the first dozen or so cabins were built from American chestnut hulks remaining from when the blight had gone thru there in the teens.  Most of those cabins remain and are lived in, but the one where my (future) wife lived was several owners later remodeled with contemporary siding.   Booo! 

[PhineasC]

If a moose wanted to lick my car that badly, it’s not clear how I would prevent or stop that. 

[BrianW]

2 hours ago, dendrite said:

Nice. So these are the GMO "Darling" trees from Suny-ESF? As far as I know those weren't given the government approval yet, but maybe they know more than what has been publicly released yet. If so, that's awesome news. I actually purchased a bunch of seeds online this fall and I have them stratifying in the fridge now. Come spring I'll directly plant the seeds and let them freely root their taproot on their own.

If anyone is around me and wants a few let me know.

I don't know the full details but they appear to be the Suny- ESF ones. It sounds like they got the go ahead to start planting them this spring. 

[BrianW]

1 hour ago, tamarack said:

Were those trees developed thru crossbreeding with Chinese chestnut or by lab work?  (Just curious, and hoping the resistance is permanent and many get planted.)

If American chestnuts can avoid all wounds they are fairly resistant.  Unfortunately, wounds are part of every tree's life.  There used to be a very attractive grove next to the Maine Forest Service entomology lab in Augusta.  Planted in 1969, by the mid 1990s they were 65' tall and arrow straight - oldtimers said they were the best representatives of pre-blight chestnuts they'd seen.  Then came Jan. 1998 and many broken branches; all those trees were dead 2 years later.  

I see a lot of the chestnut when I inspect older houses, great versatile wood, was great for building and burning. Would love to see it make a comeback.

The NNJ lake community where I lived 1950-71 began in 1930 as a seasonal place, and the first dozen or so cabins were built from American chestnut hulks remaining from when the blight had gone thru there in the teens.  Most of those cabins remain and are lived in, but the one where my (future) wife lived was several owners later remodeled with contemporary siding.   Booo! 

https://acf.org/our-community/news/new-genetically-engineered-american-chestnut-will-help-restore-decimated-iconic-tree/

It appears to be these. I guess approval was granted. 99.9% genetically identical to the original chestnuts here. The big concern I think was gmo trees being used by private companies. It sounds like they got the go ahead as long as they are non profit. 

[powderfreak]

New England all quarantined up now with today’s Mass update removing NH and ME from the safe list.

From Boston.com:

Massachusetts residents planning to visit family in New Hampshire and Maine this Thanksgiving will be required to quarantine for two weeks or have proof of a negative COVID-19 test upon their return, according to the latest change of the state’s out-of-state travel rules — and the same goes for visitors from two those states coming here for the holiday.

As local officials urge residents against traveling at all for Thanksgiving amid the surge in coronavirus cases this fall, a spokesperson for the state’s COVID-19 Command Center told Boston.com that Massachusetts will remove New Hampshire and Maine from its list of lower-risk states effective Saturday.

That means individuals visiting or returning from those states are now required to self-quarantine for 14 days or have proof of a negative COVID-19 test from within the prior 72 hours upon arriving in Massachusetts. Failure to comply may result in a $500 fine per day.
 

 

[PhineasC]

It really is a dark winter coming. Bad time of year to have lockdowns returning with the weather and shortened daylight time.

I feel for people trapped in small apartments during this.

[dendrite]

4 hours ago, BrianW said:

https://acf.org/our-community/news/new-genetically-engineered-american-chestnut-will-help-restore-decimated-iconic-tree/

It appears to be these. I guess approval was granted. 99.9% genetically identical to the original chestnuts here. The big concern I think was gmo trees being used by private companies. It sounds like they got the go ahead as long as they are non profit. 

Yeah it must be the Darling named GMO trees then. I think they only had to change a few genes out of the 40k in the genome. The added gene produces oxalate oxidase (OxO) which neutralizes the oxalic acid that is produced by the blight fungus. So the fungus can actually exist on the trees without the acid being formed to kill it. And the gene is found naturally in wheat and bananas and other plants already. I think there's another marker gene in there for identifying which seeds actually have the resistant gene. So really it's like 99.999% or better.

https://www.esf.edu/chestnut/about.asp

Here's my seeds that came in. They are way smaller than the Chinese ones you can find in grocery stores right now.