Bogieblog

What to Do

I got the almost official word on Thursday that I will be a permanent work from home employee. That word came from my boss who said she got approval. Of course nothing is official until I receive the paperwork and it is signed.

So, now I'm thinking that I have too many vehicles. I have to make sure both the car and truck are driven weekly for at least 30 minutes to keep the batteries in good shape. Although I love the car, that is the one that would need to go if I decide to sell.

It is a great time to sell. Looking at values I should be able to come darn close to getting what I paid for it. That amazing fact is because there is a shortage of cars since there is a chip shortage. Of course that is also dependent on me selling privately and dealing with all the hassles that come with that.

I could also look into trading both vehicles in for a newer used truck/SUV (the Explorer is 7 years old and has 120k miles). Trucks/SUV's haven't skyrocketed in price the way cars have (so far). Although that would leave payments (which I am okay with), it looks like I could get a 3 year old vehicle comparable to the Explorer, with about 35k miles for what would be in my price range.

Decisions, decisions.

Day Lilies

Since all the rain the last two weeks, the day lilies have decided to put out buds and flowers at a record pace. If there is no name, it is because I have no clue

Night Beacon in the shrub garden

American Revolution in the roadside garden

Purple D'Oro

I don't always have a green thumb. These butterfly bushes are an example. One I killed outright, the other has only grown to 6" tall so far.

I went to Agway to see if they had anything to replace them with and I found some interesting stuff

On the right is an Echibekia Summerina Yellow. No, I didn't get confused, it is a cross between Echinacea and Rudbekia

On the left is an Echibekia Summerina Orange

Between the two, I planted a Rainbow Rhythm Tiger Swirl day lily (no blooms, so I made do with the label

Now, it will probably never rain again this summer and I'll have to water them regularly to get them established :)

Drought has Broken

For this area anyway. Northern NH still need rain.

Got another half inch of rain 7/8-7/9

Before last night's rain of at least 1.5" (still raining), the drainage area on the north side of my property still had standing water. The ditch on the south side of the house has had running water in it all week. Glad I got my yard mowed Friday night as a lot of it was still damp to wet at that point.

Went up to Concord yesterday. Half way there the A/C in the Explorer started blowing hot, extremely humid air (the humidity was my first clue since it is sky high). I had taken a shower just before leaving the house as I had mowed the neighbor's lawn and had ended up soaking wet - needed another shower by the time I got to the big city. I had the compressor replaced 3 months after I bought the truck in 2018. It's only been driven about 20k miles since then. At least half that mileage was winter driving, so the A/C hasn't been worked too much. Maybe it's just a busted line or something.

On Sunday, I was coming up the ramp and saw this funky looking bug

Measuring the label later, the thing was 1-1/8" long. I Googled black and yellow beetle, but the closest I could come was a locust borer. However, the descriptions said it had red legs and the pictures clearly show yellow legs. Also it is smaller than 1" and the head portion was all black. Another bug that was similar also had red legs, and although the head was striped, it didn't have the big black patch on its back.

I contacted the UNH Extension for an ID. They came back on Tuesday indicating it is a sugar maple borer, with the following information:

This is called a sugar maple borer (looks a lot like the locust borer, but is much larger and the pattern is different). The sugar maple borer is found throughout the northeast and usually lives in the trunks of the trees. The presence of these beeltes [sic] can be observed on the trunk of affected trees at the outset of an infestation. Galleries excavated by the young larvae can be recognized from the bark dust piles soaked with sap that are present near egg-laying sites. Another obvious sign of attack is the presence of an elongated swelling in the bark, which will eventually split open, leaving a wound.

Damage results from the larval galleries which disrupt sap flow and reduce the tree's vitality. Some branches will die after being cut off from the sap supply, and if there are many galleries, the whole tree may die. The sugar maple borer, is believed to be native to North America, and is considered the most destructive pest of maple

Pretty bug but I'm hoping it was just stopping for rest on its way somewhere else. I only have one sugar maple and it is one I planted a couple of years ago. I checked it out and it seems fine. Lots of other maples around, but everything I've read claims it is exclusive to sugar maples.

More Rain!

This is the rain I got last weekend (Thursday thru 7/4/21)

This is what I got 7/8 - 7/9 (little of that came from hurricane Elsa)

Most of the rains weren't heavy so the ground soaked in almost all of it. It finally hit saturation point on 7/9 and I started to get puddles in the back yard where in a normal year, that much rain would have given me a small stream. The puddles were gone yesterday. There is also ponding at the drainage area between the shrub garden on the north side and the apartment building. That ponding is still there (or was yesterday afternoon).

I mowed both yards last Monday (7/5). Even with the high humidity and 5.5" of recent rain, the neighbor's yard dried out enough I could mow yesterday. I'll need to mow what I can of my yard today - I won't be able to do the drainage area, and right now it is a maybe over on the swamp side* area.

All that moisture has been good for some of the flowers that appear this time of year.

A yellow day lily that has no name because I didn't plant it. It just appeared 3 or 4 years ago within the line of common orange day lilies in the area between the front door steps and the garage. The orange day lilies did not have a good showing this year as this is not a garden that I watered.

This day lily has no name because I either lost the tag when I planted it in the driveway garden, or it was given to me by someone else

My Funny Valentine in the roadside garden

This has no name but I call it "Molly's" or Midwinter's" day lily because I got it from a gal on the FHC forum (real name / forum name). This is planted next to the front steps on the southwest corner.

Echinacea

Black Eyed Suzies

A funky fungus that has grown on a landscape timber in the last week

Mystery flower. Several of these showed up at the far corner of the roadside garden - outside the garden but next to the stones. I certainly didn't plant it and this is the first year it has shown up. Someone on the FHC forum identified it as a Tall Bell Flower and that certainly looks like what it is. A couple more are growing next to the neighbor's shed that is sitting right at the property line (the pin is literally at one corner of the shed).

Between mowing yards on 7/5, I cooled of by reading in the sitting area. This squirrel was not happy with me (I had to lighten the picture quite a bit for the squirrel to show against the bark)

Picture I took yesterday

This is a bulb that the dang squirrels or chipmunks have dug up out of the roadside garden. I only plant bulbs that supposedly they don't like and won't bother. That is either a daffodil or a hyacinth (most likely daffodil).

*The swamp is no longer a swamp but has been cleared and filled in with a massive amount of sand and rip rap. But I don't want to call it the vacant lot since I'm sure someone will build, or he'll put up a trailer soon and sell it.

Finally, a Good Rain

It has been no secret that my area has been pretty dry since the middle of last summer. These are pictures of some storms that came thru on Wednesday, that missed my area. Sure, we got some rain off the edges, but just enough to wet the grass but not enough to move the rain gauge.

Last week I didn't even mow. But, since late Thursday night, I have seen 3" of rain. It has been a nice slow rain so it soaked in - YAY!

Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, NH broke several high temps. This weekend we have either tied or broken a couple more - low high temps in the high 50's. It has not only been rainey during that time, but darkly overcast so there has been no solar gain. I unpacked the pellet stove and it ran a couple of times yesterday and at least once so far this morning. We are supposed to get in the mid 60's today, then back up in the 90's on Tuesday.

That has been our weather this spring/summer; either 15-20 below average or 15-20 above average.

Shed Variance

So, I'm looking at putting up a new shed. One would think this would be easy since the town does not require a build permit for a shed less than 200 sq/ft. The only place it makes sense to place a shed at this point, I would need a variance for because it is too close to the lot line. I need to be 20' from back lines and 15' from side lines. I pretty much want to place the shed 15' from a back line and about 5-8' from the side line.

So here is where it gets interesting. I need a lot line map of my property that shows existing buildings and proposed buildings (all to scale). I was going to do my own since I know where one pin is, when I stumbled across a complexity. The front of my property does not end where I thought it ended. I thought it ended at the drainage ditch next to the empty lot because of where the previous owner had the fence. After measuring the 165' the front of the lot extends, I found that it should go to 15' beyond the drainage ditch. The fence location still made sense because of all the water drainage - he wouldn't have wanted to put the posts in there. The back is 150' and is close to where I thought it was.

The complexity is because some developer bought the swamp next door, determined it isn't swamp (ahem), cleared the brush and brought in 20+ trucks of sand to fill in (plus who knows how many trucks of rip rap). This person did not have the land surveyed so guessed. All I'm saying is it looks as if his work came mighty close to my lot and when he sells, the people will naturally assume that they own the vegetation he left to the ditch.

So, I decided to have my lot surveyed. With all the building going on all the surveyors are very busy so I have to wait until the end of summer, early fall. As an aside, the local surveyor also would argue with that lot not being swamp - he knows of the property of which I spoke. Then I have to submit the plans to the planning board, where they will schedule a hearing. I have to appear at the hearing in person, where they may or may not approve (or may ask for more information which requires a new submital).

Once they approve, I have 180 days to make substantial progress on the build or the variance is pulled. Substantial means more than the site work. Site work in this case would just mean to have some gravel laid to even up the section, so that is no big deal. But, since I wouldn't want to order the shed until I knew I had the variance, and sheds from HD are up to a 3 month backlog, that puts me into the middle of winter.

Nothing is ever easy.

Metal Shed Condition

I promised Cop Car I would take pictures of the pre-2003 metal shed condition. This shed was moved from my last place over to this place in 2014. I forgot to take pictures of the side to the left - actually, I really wouldn't be able to take a picture that shows the horizontal crease that  very well.

The front - sure it doesn't look too, too bad, but look at the sill for the door, it is completely buckled and it takes just a slight breeze to unseat the doors and have them swinging in the breeze. I'm constantly re-seating them. The lock is never locked, just helps the doors support each other

The back - you can't really see any of the creases. But you can see the section under the roof support on the right is no longer straight

The dip in the roof on the tent garage side. The worst of the dip is toward the front, so this picture does not show the full extent.

The dip in the roof on the tree side

The inside of the roof showing part of the dip as well as several slices in the metal from limbs, and perhaps the roof rake going thru

If it was just the front, back and sides, I wouldn't worry about it too much. But the dips in the roof are what worry me. They get worse every year even though I try to keep it roof raked when it snows.

Additionally, the floor is rotting and the only way to replace that is to remove the shed entirely - I'm sure that is a recipe for collapse.

I really don't need the building coming down on all the yard equipment.

Actually Not a Surprise

The price of the 20x24 garage that I was going to have built to replace the tent garage, has just gone up by $8,000. They had put off the build from April/May time frame to July because of a labor shortage (they lost a couple of people and couldn't find anyone willing to work). They contacted me yesterday and said the price was going up by 30%.

I know that isn't unreasonable because of what has been happening with lumber, but OUCH! I told them I would mull it over for a couple of days. Part of me says just do it. Part of me says - nope, you'll regret not waiting until next year.

Then part of me said, at the least I need to replace that poor, wicked old metal shed that I'm shocked hasn't fallen down yet. That shed sits smack dab where the garage is supposed to be installed. Can't move the placement of the garage, but maybe I can get a shed from a BBS and put it up somewhere else. I looked around the yard and the only place I would be happy with is in the back corner of the yard near my sitting area. That means I would want something aesthetically pleasing (as opposed to a metal shed). I found one that I'm good with and know the installed price. The issue is, that I would have to have a bit of site work done to get that area fairly level. My guess is that would push the total cost to about $5,000.

So now I'm going back and forth in my mind - is potentially saving $3k worth the wait? No guarantees the market will settle down any time soon. Although I've heard that wood prices (basically futures, not right now) are going down recently. But, how many people are in the same boat I'm in and waiting for that to happen? Will there be a major run on wood again, pushing the prices back up?

I could drive myself crazy with all this thinking!

Mini-Split Install

Monday was the big day for the mini-split install. Although capable of heat, it's main function for me is the A/C and the system is to replace the portable unit I used for the living room as well as the window unit I had in the office. It was an auspicious time for the install as we had a 4 day heatwave, starting of Saturday, and the morning lows being in the high 60's and low 70's so the A/C's running full bore thru the night to cool the house. Then Wednesday the top temp was only 89* with full sun.

Monday started with the guy calling me at 8 and saying he had to make an emergency call before he came to my house. That was fine, I had a meeting at 9, and he would not have been able to access my office, and I would have had to have my office closed up while he was in the house (I don't work with secret stuff, but it is sensitive). He and the electrician did stop by real quick so that he could show the electrician where it would be installed (I have no idea why since neither of them stayed - maybe he was just confirming he wouldn't need anything special). I do know the place he needed to visit was in town, so it wasn't out of his way. Shortly after 10 am they came back to begin the install.

There was nothing really exciting besides a couple of times I had to shut down and take a break from work. I had previously informed my boss that my availability would be erratic and I had that message as an automatic reply for my email. Mondays are my light day for meetings and the 9 am was the only one scheduled for the day.

Shortly after 4 pm, the system was up and running. Oh, so quiet - even the outdoor unit. Once they had left, I opened up the bedroom doors; The back bedroom was at about 77 (being on the NE side of the house) and the cats were happy to get out of there and stretch their legs. The front bedroom (what I use for the master), was at 80* and at that time of day is climbing steadily since it is on the west side and at that time of day it starts catching the full sun. It didn't take long for those rooms to get cooled down with the new system pushing out cold air.

Outside unit (condenser). The verticale piece hides the wire/tubing management system (tubing for coolant and condensate drainage)

Living room head. Yes, it looks strange located like that, but there is a reason. Being partially above the window, some of the airstream goes down the hall towards the bedrooms. However, it couldn't be centered over the window because of the header. This was the only installer that suggested this location. The other quoters wanted to place the head over to the right, centered between the window and the front door. Then the full airstream would have bounced off the opposite wall, back into the living room and been trapped (been there, done that with the corner install pellet stove I used to have, then I used a lot of fans to get the air to move down the hall). Unless you are looking for the head, it really isn't noticed.

The wire and tubing management for the office head. At the bottom, it is turned into the basement, goes across the basement ceiling, and out to the outdoor unit. You can actually see in the first picture where it comes out between the wire management system for the LR head and the electric box (the dark circle which is both wires and putty that closes up any gaps)..

The office head blows toward the door to the kitchen. The wire management system goes out the wall to the right.

I turn off the head in the office when I am done working for the day; The overhead light is out, all monitors off (not in sleep mode) both computers put to sleep (but not off). Looking at the temps in the room the next morning, I am glad I put in the second head. The office will be 2-3* over the LR/BR and bath temps, which indicates to me that it would be even warmer once I start all the electronics up. Sure, I could set the LR head colder, but I don't want it any cooler that the 72 I keep it at.

When nights are scheduled to go below the mid 60's I turn off the LR head when I retire for the night. On such mornings (like this morning, at 54), I set up fans in the bedroom windows, open a window in the kitchen for air egress, and allow mother nature to get it as low as 67 in the house (yes, I wear a sweatshirt during those times - LOL).

I already sold the portable A/C on Craig's List. Put the ad up Friday morning and it was picked up Friday evening. That was a 12k unit an has the advantage of mobility. The 6k window unit is also on CL but hasn't had any interest yet. I'll lower the price a little and see if that changes.

Oh, and this past Thursday night I turned on the pellet stove since it had been a cold and heavily overcast day so the top temp in the house reached was 69* and would do nothing but drop thru the night. Will be the same on Monday.

Week of 5/30/21 Gardens

If you remember, the winter of 2019 was not kind to the rhododendrons in front of the house. The part that really gets rhodies is winter winds since that will dry out the leaves. 2019 was particularly brutal in that regard, and this is how the rhodies looked May of that year (order: from mailbox, from driveway, from road)

I waited until mid summer to prune out obviously dead areas, but left branches that seemed to be recovering. The summer of 2020, the rhodies were still in bad enough shape that I didn't even bother taking pictures (IIRC, only the very bottom bloomed anyway). I pruned out a few more branches that were struggling. Then the drought hit. I watered them a few times (when the leaves were super drooped), but not many since I was conserving water while trying to keep the new roadside garden alive. I figured this year would be another bust for the poor beleaguer things.

Well, obviously they have recovered just fine and my doubts were misplaced (mailbox, driveway, road, front door)

And this picture here pretty much sums up why I needn't bother putting plants on my front porch

They are once again the envy of the neighborhood. Even people going down rt 149 can enjoy the view of those beauties.

One of the new peonies, Alertie, is blooming

Yesterday I picked a bouquet of nicely scented flowers for the house. Order: Alertie peony, Black is Black iris, some sort of purple iris

Yesterday it got up to 92 degrees. We did have a late afternoon thundershower that brought a quick 1/2" of rain and a drop in temperature to 73. It is supposed to be in the 90's every day until Thursday - and the humidity high (yesterday it was 70%). Our average amount of days over 90 is somewhere around 10-15. I've already had 5 or 6 of those days. Because of those expected temps, I installed the window A/C in the office early yesterday morning. I was holding off hoping the mini split system would be installed before it became an issue, but that was not to be.