Bogieblog

Bronx Zoo

Yesterday I got up earlier than usual, left my house at 4:20 am to meet a bus by 5:45. Departure was at 6 am sharp and I went with 39 complete strangers***. We rode said bus (added "bonus" the weigh station was open so we had to join the semi's in getting weighed) until just after 10:00 to spend the next 7 hours here.

Had a great time and hit everything that I was interested in (left off the Mouse House, camel ride, nature walk, tree top adventure and the Bug Carousel). (map link for better viewing) I could have easily hit some of those if I had wanted to - and I did it all by walking, I did not use the shuttle at all. Not sure I would have gone on the Wild Asia Monorail if I'd thought about it beforehand. Heights are not my friend and the first thing after pulling out of the station is cross a bridge over the Bronx river at 35' above the water. The bridge consisted of the rails only and while sitting you are facing out the open side of the car (instead of facing the front). Most of the rest of the loop has enough trees around that I wasn't forced to realize how far away the ground was. And then of course, there was the second bridge over the river before pulling back into the station. All was good and I was glad I took the ride. Shortly after 6 pm we left the parking lot to head back home. Had to stop at the weigh station to change drivers (it wasn't open so didn't have to drive over the scales this time). It was 10:58 pm when I walked into my house - so it was a long day.

 

*** Complete strangers - People that work for the same company as I do (which employees about 6,000 people in NH). I've never met any of the people, so they were strangers but also I have reason to completely trust them as I know where they work :) )

Now that Covid restrictions are over, the employee engagement team has arranged more trips. The engagement team does all the planning and hires a bus (with bathroom) to take us to our destination. Of course there is a fee associated. But that fee includes tickets to the event as well as driver and gas. Looking at the zoo website group tickets cost $8 less than if bought individually (and with the "Full Experience".

Curtains Redux

I liked the new bathroom curtains that I got some to replace the dark blue curtains in the living room. I was worried by the color name of teal on the website, but it looked like they should match the front door, which is called Fairy Tale Blue. However, I think they pair up nicely

The lighter color compared to the old curtains does a lot to brighten up the room.

Day Lilies Blooming in the Heat

I didn't mow last week, only spot mowed the week before, and won't mow this week. Been hot the last several days. At leasst hot by NH standards as it has been in the 90's. However, the lDay Lilies in the roadside and shrub gardens seem to be doing okay (I do water the roadside garden). The driveway garde is not going quite as well, but still have some decent showing.

Driveway garden lilies

Roadside garden

Shrub garden

And the yellow one by the porch

Curtains

I've been using a large towel to cover my bathroom window since I put the garden window in there in 2014. Past summers I've put up pieces of rigid foam insulation along the side windows to keep some of the solar gain out. This year I got a double-cellular light filtering shade (did that for all my bay windows too - HD had a 25-35% off sale).

So back to replacing the towel - I decided to get an actual window treatment. The color isn't really true in the pictures. The towel at the right is a light blue, the walls are are not so yellow, and the shade is a light blue that is a close match to the towel (Estria Summer Sky blue to be exact).

It's All Over Except for the Crying

Tuesday my former coworker texted me to see if the tree service could come on Wednesday. She was worried that wasn't enough time for me to get the fence down in time for their trucks to have access. I assured her that Wednesday was fine as the panels were already down and all I needed to do was move a couple of potted plants. So, shortly after 8 Wednesday morning they started setting up. They pulled back out of the yard at 12:20 (I know the exact time, because I had just clocked in from lunch when I heard them pull out).

This was the same company that took out the willow in 2017. At that time, he owned a bucket truck and chipper and I believe it was a one-man show. He has upgraded to include a crane and had 2 people with him. The bucket truck was placed behind the house where the chainsaw operator could reach all the trees to be worked on. The crane was in the side yard between the house and the shed. The chipper was at the end of the driveway. Originally the crane was to be at the front of the house, with the chipper in the side yard, but they decided that would not be the best configuration.

Flying tree :D

A couple of trees that have been topped but the trunks are still standing at this point

I had added the 3 entwined trees at the edge of the property, so was expecting 8 or 9 trees taken in total. However, Andrew had me come out and look at a tree that seemed healthy, but in reality was splitting along the length of the trunk. It was not evident from the backyard, but until he was next to it cutting down the 3 tree cluster. Since I didn't expect that tree to be taken, I don't have any good pictures of it. This picture is of the 3-tree clump with the split tree way to the side circled in red.

I told him to take it as well as any other trees that he found to be in trouble. In all there were 13 trees taken. Although there is obviously 1 small one (in diameter, not in height), they were mostly right around 15". Those that clumped had a correspondingly larger footprint. The large trunk to the right of center, with the darker inner weed is the cherry tree taken from the sitting area. The log just to the left of that one, is the cherry tree from the center of the 3-tree clump (the other 2 trees in the clump were maples)

They also trimmed up some of the tree branches that were making that long reach towards the house. Before (taken a couple of weeks ago) and after

So they left at noon-twenty, but the logs were left in the driveway until the guy that was the crane operator showed up shortly after 4pm with a log truck. I talked to him for a couple of minutes and found he is a neighbor, living about a 1/2 mile down my road. He and his wife ride their motorcycles by my place on a regular basis and we wave to each other.

I was happy to learn that the trunks will be put to good use. He takes logs taken from local cuttings to his property, cuts/splits and seasons it. Sure, he burns some but also donates about 20 cords to the local firewood bank per year.

Stump from the tree that was splitting

From the 3-tree cluster. The cherry tree is the larger portion to the left (I was sideways to the house)

From two trees that were growing together in the front of the tree line

The thing that sux (besides having a much better view of the buildings behind my house and the extra sun hitting the house in the morning), is that nearly everything that had to come down were black cherry trees, leaving all junk maples (except for 1 cherry over toward the shrub garden). However, dang those trunks are straight (6-7 trees came out in this portion alone)

And last but not least, my sitting area prior to tree cutting, then after. Having to put that cherry tree on the chopping block was the hardest decision, but I knew it had to go as hard as it leaned and half the crown was dead.

I didn't realize how odd a shape that tree was until I looked at the stump

Last night (Friday) I was out watering the roadside garden and the crane operator stopped on his way home. "Hey, those grown back yet?"

"Nah, give them a couple of weeks."  ;)

Just a Few Short Takes

The electric company has approved my application for installation of net-metering without any stipulations. So now it is just more waiting for the solar company to schedule installation. I am guessing, that as a smaller project, and being 30 miles away from their offices, that they may wait until September. But, that is just a guess - I'm not complaining, just putting in my bet.

 

The tree company has not been here yet either. At the same time, I'm happier to wait until a couple of weeks before solar installation so that I get max shade during the morning to keep use of AC to a minimum.

 

Low humidity is good for feeling cooler on summer days. However, at the same time, almost all of NH is in a moderate drought. Unless we get a decent amount of rain, yesterday's mowing is probably the last for a while. And even then, I didn't mow the front yard (between the house and the road) as it is the driest portion. Without even any morning dew (which has been the norm the last month or two), the grass in that area is starting to go dormant. Even the parts I mowed hadn't grown much since last week. I will mow the neighbor's yard today - from the looks of it, I'll be doing selective mowing there too.

RIP Neighbor's Kitty

Late yesterday morning, as I got home from the dump, I saw the neighbor woman, Genny (across the street and to the south), carry a shovel out to the ditch in front of her house. She looked hesitant and unsure and a bit reluctant. I decided to find out if she needed help with something as her husband's vehicle was gone.

Turns out there was a deceased cat in the ditch (had been hit by a car and been there long enough for rigor to set in) and she was trying to get up the nerve to pick it up and bury it. However, it also wasn't her cat. I recognized it as one of the cats that frequents my yard and belongs to a neighbor across the street that is behind my house (to the east). I told Genny that I would go let them know.

Not a good way to meet neighbor's. On my way back to the scene, I grabbed a box large enough for carrying the kitty (Cheeky, I believe is what the woman said). Shortly after, her husband drove up, transferred the cat into the box and went to bury it.

I've posted pictures of Cheeky several times as "not my cat". He had a bell on his collar that I would often hear, but no more.

Canine Gibbs

This weekend is the Hillsboro Summerfest. It is held at the town ball field that is a short distance from my house.

 

Yesterday I saw on the police FB page that Canine Gibbs would be putting on a short demonstration at the farthest side of the field (from my house), so I walked over to observe. For the first part of the demonstration I did not get any good pictures since there were people in front of me and they were moving constantly. But I did get a couple of his sit/stay and a short search.

Searching for the object

After the object search (and a short cooling off / water break) there was a suspect grab demonstration. Once again I didn't get pics because of the movement of the actors and the people in front, but it was interesting to watch.

Despite what you see in the movies, not a bark was uttered during the entire demonstration.

Kitties on a Hot Summer's Day

A few pics from a couple of days ago.

Rainey baked her brains in the window for a while, then came out to cool off in the air stream of the AC

Not too much later, Rainey vacated that place and Spot decided to sleep on the hammock in the cat pen

Meanwhile Rita was in one of here favorite places, a low table next to the couch. BTW - yesterday was her 6th Gottcha Day. I rescued her in 2016 when she was approximately 7 years old

Refreshed Sitting Area

The 20 year old wood bench I've had in the sitting area has seen better days. Then a branch came down last week shearing off part of an arm rest.

I put in the back of my mind that I should replace it, but hadn't started actively looking. Went to TSC Saturday and they had 25% of garden furniture. And one of them came home with me.The assembly was supposed to take 2 people 35 minutes to put it together. It probably took 30 minutes to remove all the packaging - LOL. Then it took me a couple of hours to put it together. I just don't do well with picture only instructions, plus it was a bit awkward to assemble with only 1 person.

Then of course I had to update the base as with just leg posts, it didn't set well on the soil that the old bench had been sitting on.

The old bench went to the side of the road and a couple of hours later it apparently had found a new home.