Bogieblog

Interesting Things Outside

After taking my morning shower yesterday, I walked into the kitchen and saw this (pictures lightened considerably)

Must have been some interesting things out there - LOL

That reminds me, I never got to show the curtains I put up on the back porch on June 6. The small section (to the left in the first pic) was put up last year to see if it helped keep the kitchen from warming up so fast from the eastern sun. It seemed to work well, so this year I put up the larger section.

Although I took down the plastic weather strips from both ends of the porch, I have not done so yet for the side. The main reason is because it has been so rainy here that I didn't want all that water splashing onto the porch. That is the reason I don't have any flowers on the rail as they would just flood out and there would be soil all over the porch. I haven't put out any of the house plants either, as I normally do.

I actually got the whole lawn mowed yesterday. That is a feat in itself as I haven't been able to mow the drainage area to the north but once this year because it usually had standing water. That area was very tall, but it was dry from the dry weather for several days (besides heavy dew), combined with fierce winds on Friday (lots of tree branches down, and some power outages in the southern part of the state). I was unsure if the Ryobi, battery mower would make it thru, and considered using the gas mower. 

Gave it the old college try with the Ryobi, and it did wonderfully.

BREAKING NEWS: We had our first dry Saturday since mid March!!!!

Right now I'm waiting for the thunderstorm to arrive with possible hail, torrential rains and high winds. That will usher in the "heat dome" thru the middle of the week (dang that jet stream moving way up north), and it will be downright miserable out there. Only supposed to be in the lower 90's today with higher humidity, but Monday and Tuesday the Heat index will not be fun.

At least I'll get some production out of my solar panels - LOL.

June Flowers

May 2025 was the 3rd rainiest May on record for NH. A lot of the East Coast and New England in general also had quite a wet month.  Thru the month of May, I took a picture on May 23 where I received 2" and on May 10 where I had received 2.75" of rain over two days. I didn't even bother recording all the times I got less than 1.5" because I would have been taking pictures 4-5 days every week.

The yellow batisia is a nice sunny color. I wish the stems supported themselves better, like the indigo baptisia. Maybe that will come with age.

The peonies are loaded with buds and flowers

I don't remember the ninebark at the roadside garden being loaded with blooms before. The ones closer to the house, yes, but for this one that is unusual. Probably because that garden in raised, so doesn't keep as much moisture as the other.

May 2025 Solar is Another Disappointment

I try to be very open and transparent about my solar system. This past February was a solar production bust, and May was not good either. This year is shaping up to be the worst year I've had so far.

May, has historically been one of my highest producing months. May 2023 was my first month that made 1.1Mwh. That is a combination of the sun angle being higher, and that the trees aren't fully clothed for part of the month. However, this May was nothing but heavy clouds and rain - it was the 3rd rainiest May on record since 1868. There were only two completely sunny days (5/1 & 5/11). And two days I didn't even make as much as I used - which is sad, because I used an average of 5.47kwh per day.

So, although it comes as no surprise, it is disappointing that my May 2025 production was at 750kwh. That is 164kwh less than my previous worst May, and 350kwh less than my most successful May. 

It doesn't change things in the scheme of things for the month of May, because I made way more than I used so received a bunch of credits for the month. My bills from the utility are still at $0.00. But because of the poor production for both February and May of this year, come January and February of next year, this could absolutely affect if I have enough credits left to offset my usage.

Not that I'm in the poor house or anything, so it pretty much comes down to my whining about the weather - LOL.

Flooding of Hillsboro 6-6-2025

Here is a newscast on our local station about the flooding in my town. We got over 4" of rain in a bit over 2 hours. Kep in mind, that live newscast is 3 hours after the rain stopped, so it had eased some. And I can tell you, where she is saying it is the worst area she had seen, wasn't the worst area in town.

I was going to add just a a picture or two, but as usual, Typepad does not work on the weekends when I can post.

The Last Day of May Explodes in Color

First of all, yes, it was another rainy Saturday wtih just under 2" of precipitation. An adjacent town had several road closures due to flash flooding washing out roads and under-road culverts. Another town near me had hail. I just had thunderstorms and, at times, torrential rains.

Between storms, and while waiting for someone to come by to by an item I put on FBM, I saw that there was suddenly a lot of color. So naturally, I went around taking pictures. And just as naturally, Typepad won't upload the so you don't get to see them today.

Monday morning and Typepad decided to let me upload pictures. I'm beginning to think it takes all weekends off.

 

Dear Mother Nature

NOTE: This was created on Sunday, May 25 but would not publish.

It would be great if we got even a little sun sometime this month. Technically, we got clear skies on 5/1/25, but after 24 days of dreary whether, I would like something better. It would be great if NH didn't climb in the ranking after reaching 4th rainiest May on record (since sometime in 1860's I believe).

It would be great if I could turn off the pellet stove and we no longer made record low, highs (I believe we've had 3 of those). It would be great not mowing wet grass and my pants being wet up to the knees by the time I'm finished. It would be great to be able to clean out the gardens. It would be great to have been able to see at least some of the nocturnal celestial events that happened this month. It would be great for my solar panels to be put to good use (technically they are producing, just at about half of what is normally produced this time of year).

 

Picture Dump from 5-17-2025

After mowing (see previous post), I took pictures around the yard. The plants are loving the moisture that has been present this month. Note that typepad kept returning an error when I tried to rotate the lilac image, so you will just need to turn your computer screen :D

Racing the Weather

Yesterday I raced to get the mowing done before the rains began. We had a fairly heavy dew, and then some light mist early morning, so I waited until about 10am so at least some of it was dry. I managed to mow the whole lawn, although it was really tough going thru the places I hadn't mowed before. I was going to use the gas mower for the drainage areas, but since I already had the battery mower out, and had changed out to fresh batteries, figured I might as well try it. The battery mower struggled, but no more so than my gas mower would have, so I was happy. I was even happier that I managed not to nick any rocks with the blades!

After mowing, I turned the mower upside down and scraped as much of the wet grass from underneath that I could. After going thru the contortions of hooking up my hose reels to the outside spigot, I blasted the underside of the mower to get the gunk out from all the crevices. So, after a total of about 2 hours, the chore was done.

It seemed as if I had finished just in time as the skies got even darker (I was not under threat of sunburn even while mowing as the skies were dark), and the clouds started spitting mist again. That only lasted for a couple of minutes, Then it dried out and we saw some afternoon sun which made the temps run up from low 60's to mid 80's. I woke up about 12:15am to the sound of a sudden down-pouring of rain that lasted about 1/2 an hour. Looking at the rain gauge, I got about 3/4" in that time.

It looks as if it is dawning to mostly clear skies this morning. However, we are supposed to have a week of unsettled weather, and mostly cloudy skies, so that is probably a false promise.

Goodness, Hopefully it Gets More Reasonable

Since May 2, 2025, there hasn't been much sun or even lightness in the sky (never mind that nearly every weekend has been soggy and dark for over 2 months). According to the rain gauge, I had gotten about 3.5" since then. Maybe more, those are the numbers I remember from dumping the rain guage.

This past Friday morning until yesterday afternoon I received another 2.75" of rain. On the news last night, they showed that Concord was at 7+ inches for the month when that area normally gets less than 4" the entire month of May.

Since the first of the month, the grass went from being tinged with green to being about 4-5" tall now (don't ask about the weeds - LOL). I have an awesome crop of dandelions that are feeding the bees too. Oh, and all of NH, except Coos county (at the very top of the state) is under some sort of flood warning. The rivers are only supposed to hit minor flood stages, no nothing catastrophic, thank goodness. Speaking of which, I just stepped out the door and I can hear the river rushing mightily - it's louder than I've heard it since at least last year's spring flooding (and maybe even prior to that).

Don't get me wrong, My area has been in some sort of drought conditions for a couple of years and the amount of watering I did for my gardens in previous summers attested to the soil being dry just below the surface. Since I don't like to water, preferring Mother Nature do the deed and using plants that aren't demanding, that also says something. Most of the rain we have received in the past 10 days has been of the more gentle variety, meaning it had a chance to soak into the ground instead of running off.

Besides the lawn quickly taking advantage of all the water, the crabapple tree started blooming (no pictures because they just look like a soggy mess). I caught a shot of the Crimson King Maple thru the window next to the living room stove, just as a brief appearance of sunshine showed yesterday afternoon.

We are supposed to get a couple of sunny days starting today. After that, who knows, it depends on whose weather report you look at. Could be somewhat sunny and dry, or it could go to mostly cloudy and wet. It's a wait and see game.

Close to Lap Time

Lila is such a watcher. She watches and studies what the other cats do and how they behave. She also watches and studies me, but when it comes to behaviors I can tell which she has decided to copy next from one, or both, of the Destructo Duo.

Friday evening, I was sitting cross legged on the couch, watching the news. Neither Spot nor Rainey were in my lap or laying on a thigh (Rainey is weird sometimes and she will lay lengthwise from my hip to my knee, balancing on my thigh). Usually, with one of the two sisters in place, Lila will lay towards the other end of the coudh.

Well, Friday, she made up her mind to be brave and try something new. I could tell by the way she rose from her position so I grabbed my phone for pics.

She came up  and stepped on one of my ankles, then backed off and came back to step on the other ankle. Then she took another couple of steps into my lap. She stood there for a few seconds, then became a bit nervous so she backed off. But, she stayed and laid against the crossing of my legs.

She still awes me at every breakthrough she makes in trust and confidence. Hopefully I don't shake either of those too much when I take her to the Vet on Monday for her first checkup and shots.