Bogieblog

Windy Summer 2023

NH gets tornado warnings a couple of time a year on average. There were 4-5 a couple of weeks ago, but those were just radar indicated and nothing materialized. This past Thursday, there was a tornado warning that started in the southwestern part of the state and then continued along a straight line as the cell barreled due east from that point. At the time, it was radar indicated.

Shortly after the tornado warning was put out, a trained weather spotter reported a tornado in the Keene/Swanzey area. Shortly after someone took a video of a rotating wall. Later in Dublin there was a path of destruction that took down trees and wires, shutting down the rt 101 corridor for hours until crews could get it cleared. I had assumed that it was a microburst or straight line winds.

By last night it was confirmed that it was an EF1 tornado. The funnel was the same as had hit the western part of the state, it just didn't stay on the ground so skipped some areas. I also heard it was 200 yards wide, although that isn't in the article.

The article has drone footage of the damage in Dublin. Fortunately no one was hurt, but around the Dublin school there is plenty of damage (not to the buildings), and someone shut down a solar station before it got hit (quick thinking).

Neighborhood Doings

In this post, from July 2, Cop Car left a comment about the house across the street: Getting that yard tamed is going to take some doing, let alone the house.

Well, it didn't take long. Monday, the new owners came and mowed down the yard. Tuesday I had to go into the office becuase the company was having VPN issues (that only affects remote workers). By the time I got home, everything from around the foundation was gone.

I wish I had been here to see it. Oh, and that box in front of the porch? That is shingles - notice that the roof was done except the ridge. You can't tell from the pictures, and I honestly didn't see that until they did the ridge on Wednesday. I don't think they stripped the old shingles off, although I could be mistaken.

That same day, when I got home shortly after 5:00 pm, they were tearing up rt 149 for a repaving project. I turned into another road and came up the back way to my house. Imagine my surprise that once again my yard/driveway seem to be a favorite place to park a truck (okay, normally people use my place to do a 5 point turn to reverse direction because that side street apparently makes it too quick and easy).

Shortly after I made the hard right turn into my driveway, the dump truck left to get rid of its load of broken pavement. When they returned, they parked 1/2 way into my driveway. The next morning I took pics of the tracks they left in both the driveway and next to the road.

Now, I have 3 empty house immediately around me, plus an empty lot along that side street (the lot adjacent to the house across the street). That side street is much less busy and is wide open, so they could have parked there. Oh, and they could have parked on another street that was closer to the work. Heck, they didn't even have to pull up so far and left my driveway open. But no, they park at my driveway entrance. I don't get what the draw is.

A Day of Day Lilies

Although there are a few day lilies that have gone by, or are not quite ready to bloom yest, most were in attendance yesterday.

And one of the yuccas suddenly put out a stalk of flowers.

The only picture not taken yesterday: Last Sunday I was going to a friend's place for a visit. As I walked out of the house I could smell wood smoke that was fairly heavy. In the middle of the day, that isn't usual. I walked around the house trying to pinpoint where the smell was coming from. I didn't find it (although I later did - it was an attended fire across rt149), I did find a feather in the backyard. I believe it is from the local hawk that is lusting after all the squirrels.

BTW, did you know that it is illegal to keep bird feathers, even molted feathers of native birds without a permit? Although I looked it up to make sure, I only know that because of watching North Woods Law (or maybe it was Lone Star Law). What I didn't know, was the same is true of eggs/eggshells. I did pick up the feather to photograph against the background of the porch railing, but I left it out back afterwards.

June 2023 Solar Report

June seemed like a totally horrible month for producing solar. The last couple of weeks were nothing but overcast, drizzly and rainy days. seriously, I don't think I saw the sun or moon for the last 10 days. But really, once all the numbers are put together, the month of June was pretty good. Oh sure, not as good as May's 1150 kwh (1.15mhw), but as one of NH's cloudiest months, 838 kwh production is respectable. With the clouds and cooler temps, the need for AC wasn't there but for a couple of days. So all in all, I was ~600 kwh ahead that the utility is crediting me for.

And now for the interesting thing going forward. The former swamp on the south side is having a house built on it. I have the feeling that the south side's winter production is going to be affected as it looks like the roof is well above what my previous "horizon" was on that side. Only time will tell if it truly affects the sun I get in the deep of winter (which isn't much anyway).

The second picture is basically what I will see from my shady sitting area. And that side is their driveway, so it will probably have cars in it. Makes me sad. The current fence is 3' tall and in need of replacement anyway so I may put in a 6' fence to help break it up, but that still won't cover everything.

Red-Headed Step-Child

I know I posted this picture of the butterfly weed a few days ago, but I'm going somewhere with this. In that post, I failed to include the description that I had written on my post in a forum. To wit, "The main plant, the one I put in years ago, is the darker orange. The lighter orange are all offspring (and there are a whole lot of babies in the same area)."

I have pictures of the matriarch blooming in 2018 (the garden was put in 2017), so there are several generations in that area and they have all been some shade of orange. Until last night.

I introduce the (figuratively) red-headed step-child, a yellow sport growing amongst its orange siblings

And last year I had been looking at flower catalogs and wistfully wishing that local stores had yellow butterfly weeds. I'll try to remember to save seeds from this sport and make sure they get "trapped" in the area. Hopefully I will get more yellow ones next year.

Will I See House Flippers in Action?

The elderly neighbor, whom I have mowed for for years and helped take care of the last 6 months, sold his house and moved to a nursing home about a month ago. It is for the best as he was wheelchair bound and needs medical attention. Additionally, he is pretty social and being stuck in his house since last December (except for outside medical appointments), he was lonely. His house was bought by a a We Buy Junk Houses type place (do not want to name the actual company, but you know, his house was definitely ugly).

Over the past few weeks I have watched them work on it. Okay, that sounds creepy, I have glanced over occasionally to see the process. Plus, I kept hearing car doors and other noises over there, so was being a good neighbor and making sure it was people that actually belonged over there.

And them working on it actually meant they hired a junk removal service to shovel out the mess from the house and shed. Both were overflowing with stuff. The last day they were there was this past Wednesday. That night a For Sale sign went up. Thursday and Friday there were a steady stream of people looking at it. I assume most, if not all, were house flippers, because there was no actual work done on the house and it is in very sad shape. Interestingly, most of the people I saw looking at it were women (perhaps estimators, or maybe flippers themselves?). However, I didn't see nearly all of them (I was working after all), so maybe it was just a timing thing on my part.

Quick, go look at what $100k gets you in a low to mid income town, in an older, low to mid level income neighborhood. The trailer on my north side is literally low income housing and I assume the apartment building that abuts the trailer's and my land is also. Anyway, the bedroom with the AC is super special with plants growing into the house. And that picture of the basement - yes, that is standing water, regardless of the sump pump running a bunch (I can hear it from my side yard as the outlet is at the front of that house). If it were me, I'd tear the place down and start over, but I'm guessing that won't happen.

If they sell it for the price listed, which I expect them to get more since it was already pending as of yesterday, it will go for at least $55k more than what was paid to the elderly guy. That is only 2 days on the market.

It will be interesting to see what happens over there.

Early Summer Blooms

There has been a short lull in the blooms, but yesterday I noticed that early summer blooms are starting to appear. However, the first picture is of the dappled willow foliage. I was worried that it would be shaded too much by the new shed. But, it appears happy.

I call these little rays of sunshine as they just brighten up my day, even when cloudy and gloomy out. Of course they are commonly called buttercups

And then there is the Rainbow Sorbet rose in a container. Yes, this unedited picture (except for size) is true to its color.

I have a gazillion of the butterfly weeds popping up and the buttercups have no trouble reproducing. I have some people interested in coming and thinning the herd once the blooms are spent.