Bogieblog

Drought Busted

Last Sunday, the weather pundits were calling an end to the drought as the previous week had been cold and wet. We had the wood stove going most nights, it was so cold. However, although it was wet here at casa Bogie, we didn't get all that much precipitation. We got less than 1" of rain all week (yes, we saw more drizzle than anything) and when I stuck my finger into the mulch in the front flower gardens, it was moist only about 1/4-1/2 inch down.

Last week, we had a couple of nice days - nice enough to ride in. We also got a couple of rainy days - 1 inch one day, and another 3/4 inch another. When I stuck my finger into the mulch yesterday morning, it was moist quite a ways into the soil. I'm ready to call our own, personal drought over with.

More rain is expected next weeek. Our weather for May has been more like what it is usually like in March, including cooler temps. That is only fair since we had a week of May-ish type weather in March. Today was nice and sunny and warm (70's), if a bit windy. It actually started fairly cold at 31 degrees. Tomorrw is supposed to be in the 70's again and sunny, and the morning in the fourties.

This is a trend I would like to see continue - although I certainly want the precipitation to keep up with normal years.

A Little Before a Lot

Yesterday we went to pick up WS's bike out of storage. He's been riding BIL's bike to work so he can put it out by the road with a For Sale sign on it. Decided it was time to get his home,even though it will be a pain to have all 3 in the shed.

We arranged to pick it up early in the morning, as later in the afternoon it was supposed to rain. We took my bike up, so we both got to ride some. It didn't rain in the afternoon, in fact was sunny, so he later he rode back up to Concord to get a case and targets for the BAG day acquisition. We had coupons that had to be used by yesterday - too bad we didn't remember the coupons when we went up to get the bike. But, with the nice weather, it worked out well for WS.

It did rain a little overnight, but it looks like only about 1/8" by the rain gauge. The ground will not be prepared at this rate - they have already called for flooding in MA, it wil be that way here too if the storm predictions are correct.

Rain, Rain, Come to Play

Heard on the news yesterday that in 47 days, we have had lless than .5" of rain. Normally we would have a bit over 5". Add that to the non-snowy winter and we are just a bit low on the moisture content of the soil.

At work the other day, there was a bit of excitement as a passing train threw some sparks and set the brush on fire. The fire department responded and all was put out before it hit any of the business buildings on either side of the tracks. The fire was to the side, and in between our two buildings (which has two parking lots and a break of trees/grass between), almost to the edge of the parking lot. The first picture is taken from my building, looking toward the corner of the other building.

The last picture is taken from the tree/grass section between the buildings and toward the second building that we occupy. The fine firefighters of Nashua put it out in short order.

We are finally supposed to get some decent rain. Starting Saturday late afternoon, we should get a bit of rain, but then on Monday, we will probably get walloped. They are forecasting a Nor'easter, which may dump as much as 5" of rain in some spots. Hopefully the top soil gets a decent soaking from the first rains before the monsoon hits. If we can get the soil used to soaking up water, it will be able to handle a lot more than if the top layer is bone dry; then it will just shed the water and massive flooding will occur.

At least the phlox will finally have a reason to bloom - right now only a few plants have bothered when usually I have a whole carpet of phlox blooms in front of the fence. Some of the daffodils are blooming, but even they don't seem too enthusiastic. Maybe the next 3-4 days will change all that.

Still Dry

It has been so dry and windy that New Hampshire was under a red flag warning (extreme fire danger) most of last week. Hillsboro had a brush fire that took 7 towns to knock down. It wasn't easy to get too, as it was in an area that had no roads, but that is why God invented 4-wheelers and light water hoses (WS was on the fire department when the only option was to carry water on his back - uphill naturally).

We did get a bit of precipitation last week. Not much, probably about 1/4-1/2" all told. I had just gotten home on Wednesday when it started raining. I got the groceries into the house and it started pouring. Then it started hailing, then sleeting. By the time it was done everything had a nice coating of slush.

Fuzzy was not impressed as he had spent the day out and was at the slider desperately wanting in (I finally saw him and let him in before the sleet hit). The dogs just had to stay in the pen until the event was over; the were even smart enough to get in the dog house - that doesn't happen very often!

Unfortunately that didn't even begin to touch what we need, precipitation wise, to reduce the threat of fire. We still haven't seen spring rains (after a winter of little snow), and all the storms out west look to travel to the south of us.

Well, if we all got the weather that we wanted, when we wanted it, all the time, that would probably mean that we were in heaven - and I'd miss a whole bunch of my friends in that case (or they would miss me!)

Trigger Finger

We just finished up a pretty much record breaking week in NH. Most days, the high temp records were broken, if not shattered. Great riding weather, Mondya thru Thursday, by anyone's definition (Friday it only got to about 70, so a bit cool for the shorts riding type).

Us, our bikes are still in storage. We are supposed to pick up mine today. Great - it will be 50, and possibly rainy. Then, next week will see lows in the 20's (19 for one morning) and highs in the 40's - not riding weather. However, that doesn't really matter - I wouldn't get to ride even if the temps were the same as this week. In fact, I most likely won't ride my bike home today - WS will be doing the honors.

I've been fighting a case of Trigger Finger, in my left hand middle finger since early January. It not only hurts, it has severely limited my range of motion, made it impossible for me to totally straighten OR bend my finger, and sometimes the pain keeps me up at night (expecially when it "locks" and I have to use the other hand to get the finger to open up). It finally got so bad that I went to see the doc on Tuesday, and saw a hand orthopedic yesterday. Got a shot of cortisone at the orhopedic's, which is usuually a successful treatment (and a shot, in the palm of the hand, is NOT, unpainful - and no, they didn't give a topical numbing agent).

Unfortunately, the shot hasn't seemed to make any differenced, except when my fingers were numb, and I couldn't move them at all yesterday afternoon. Unless it kicks in at some later date, I will be looking at surgery.

My whole left hand is shot, from the elbow on down. Maybe they can just give me a bionic arm and I'll be all set

Short Lived

After getting close to 20" of snow a week or so ago, and getting a couple of snow showers (one, yesterday morning), we have an almost snow free yard. Where the sun shines all day anyway. We had a major thaw Wednesday and Thursday, but the temps have gotten back below freezing again. That is just as well, as that means the ground is frozen, not all muddy.

I'm hoping for an early spring. After two springs in a row that never seemed to end (well, not until July or so), an early spring would be nice to have. Cop Car has a post up on Kansas' early spring, and how she doesn't mind it - but hopes it doesn't precede another hot, dry summer.

We finally got the shaft for the snow blower, so WS spent a portion of yesterday trying to get it put back together. I knew it was a real "project" when he came in later with a bandaid on his finger, kept on with electrical tape - as I've stated before, it's not really a project unless some of WS's blood is involved. He hasn't completed the project, but is most of the way done. Unfortunately, he is working at his paying job (although, being salary, he isn't being paid for the extra time), so it won't be completed today.

If we are lucky, snow will stay away. It should as they are predicting a good warm up for the week. One  thing that bothers me about that is that everyone at work will be riding in, and we don'e have the bikes out of storage. Not that it would be wise to get them out yet as we still have plenty of ice betweent the driveway and the shed - not a good thing on a bike. But seeing bikes on the road and in the parking lot at work, gives me the urge to be on mine. Another urge that I have to fight, is planting seeds to get starts going for the garden. I need to wait a couple more weeks (beginning of April anyway) as I can't actually plant until after May 30.

We've had one day where the woodstove wasn't going (Thursday), and we will probably get a couple more days like that in the coming week. I could get used to that.

It's a What?

A PSNH worker did a good dead the other day by breaking down the door to a burning house to allow the owner's pet dog escape.

When I read the name of the dog breed, I thought there must be some mistake. The story called the dog a Blackmouth Cur breed. I have never heard of a blackmouth cur, and looking at the picture I thought the dog looked somewhat like a boxer mix. I thought that either the owners were having fun with the reporter, or the owners had been taken for some cash when they got the dog.

However, upon further investigation, I found that there is indeed a Blackmouth Cur breed and it has been listed by the UKC since 1998.

Hu, learn something new everyday.

Snow Storm Aftermath

Thursday morning I got up, headed upstairs to feed the dogs and was greeted by a burning electrical smell. Fortunately, it didn't take a genious to figure out where it was coming from as the refrigerator was making a nasty whining sound. I unplugged it, scooted it out from against the wall, and let it sit to cool off.

After feeding the dogs, letting them out, getting dressed, and letting the dogs in, I measured the snow I was about to shovel; 10". After shoveling for almost an hour and a half, I had the deck, path to the dog pen, path from the door to both vehicles, and path to the oil tank cleared. I also had cleared off both vehicles, and shoveled that snow off to the side also.

WS had worked late the evening before trying to get the snowblower put back together. He didn't have the new parts yet, but figured he could get it to work well enough to do the burms and and the driveway. He was just coming in as I went to bed, so didn't get a chance to ask him how it went (I didn't hear him start it), so I figured he couldn't get it together and working since he wasn't out snow blowing.

I figured I could get the Jeep to blow thru the berm at the end of the driveway (it is downhill after all), so no big deal. When I got into the house, there was WS cleaning all the doghair out from around the motor/compressor of the fridge. That was going to be my next project, but he beat me to it. So, I waited for him to finish up and plug it in. Blessedly, it started up without too much noise, and sounded like it would be okay. So, I didn't have to empty the fridge/freezer before going to work - great.

Thursday night I got home and WS was snow blowing. I measured the snow on the deck and found we had gotten another 6.5" of snow - and it was still snowing. I shoveled for an hour or so, re-clearing what I had cleared thaat morning (after starting laundry and stoking up the woodstove). There was another 1/2-3/4" of snow on the deck at that point.

Shortly after I had finished up laundry (folding dry stuff and hanging wet stuff), I heard WS pulling the snowblower into the shed. It was hard to miss as it was making horrible sounds. He got both berms taken car of and about 1/3 of the driveway cleared before it just wouldn't do any more work (he figures he bent the shaft - which is one of the parts he is waiting on).

Friday, WS came home after work and put the blade on the 4-wheeler, and plowed out the rest of the driveway - he was in the middle of it when I got home. I didn't bother shoveling the 2-3" of snow that we had gotten as the forcast was for sleet and rain, and I wanted the snow on the ground to soak it up. That way, paths wouldn't turn into an instant sheet of ice.

For those keeping track, we got close to 20" of snow between Wedneday and Friday. We actually got more snow overnight Friday, I know becuase I let the dogs out at 1:30am and they came back in white. Then, it started raining. We probably got a couple of inches of rain Saturday morning. Then about 3, the sun came out and stuff started melting. I'm guessing that it got in the 40's, warmer than it has been in quite a while.

I don't know whether Mother Nature is mocking us by making almost a useless task of moving the snow, or whether she is just trying to give us some exercise.

Real Snow Due

Things ought to be interesting in the next couple of days. Our first real snow (read: over 4") since November is due to hit Wednesday into Thursday. 6-10" of the stuff is projected to fall (still subject to change of course).

What will make it interesting is that the snowblower is in pieces. WS started to work on it a couple of weekends ago, found more parts that needed replaced, ordered the parts, and the parts aren't in yet. Even if they had been received, WS worked about 15 hours on Saturday and Sunday, each, so he wouldn't have had time to put the parts in. Oh, and for those keeping track, all days that WS has worked during the weekend, we have gotten snow/sleet, so I have had to deal with it all by myself. Of course, it is much better than the hours, and hours of brutal wind and cold, so I haven't complained too much.

Town Meeting is coming up soon, so we are in line for another snow storm on that weekend too.

Eagles Landed

Bald Eagles Land On 101 Eastbound - New Hampshire News Story - WMUR New Hampshire.

Rt 101, in Bedford, was closed down for a while this morning as two bald eagles thought it was a great place to get a break from the wind.