Bogieblog

New Neighbor - or Just some Prework?

Last month, in Welcome and Goodbye, I wrote about the neighbor at the new house next door (south side) moving in in December and putting the house up for sale in February.

She moved out 3/20/2024. A day or two later I saw someone there for a short time. I didn't pay much attention but do know they turned off some lights (the previous neighbor had left the kitchen light on as well as the light by the garage door), change the locks (or that is what I assume was being done to the door) and pull the shade on the the window to the entry door beside the garage door. Nothing was done after that and no one cleared the snow/ice from last weekend's storm - nor were there any vehicle tracks. The snow was finally all melted this past Friday.

Yesterday (Saturday) it was sunny so I had my shades/blinds retracted. When I was passing the kitchen bay window, a flash of color drew my eye and I saw a vehicle sitting in front of the garage door. I happened also to catch later as they were pulling the vehicle into the garage. That's it - but for all I know they left after that. I was gone for most of the morning into part of the afternoon doing some errands in Concord, so IDK if they moved a small amount of furniture in there earlier in the day or if it was someone doing something to the house prior to the next owner moving in (maybe deep cleaning or painting?)

I know everyone is waiting with bated breath to find out what happens there next  - LOL.

Spring Starts with Winter Storm

Spring snow isn't unusual for NH. This year we've had a dearth of snow storm, especially those of any decent productions, and the ski areas shut down early and I haven't used a snow shovel in about a month (and the snow blower only a couple of times the entire winter. Now this is blowing in courtesy of a western system and southern system joining forces.

Depending on the source, I'm due for anywhere between 4" and 12" of snow.

From our local station

 

But then Cloudboy puts me at 4-8"with this little disclaimer (I'm the far north Monadnock region)

Then late morning/early afternoon I'm set to get 4-5 hours of sleet/mix, then maybe more snow after dark as the storm wraps back around. It will certainly be a mess.

On another note: A couple of weeks ago I attached several pictures of the cats, and couldn't figure out why 1 of them was repeated and the one of Big Boy was left out. I discovered if I try to upload more than 1 photo at the same time, it just uploads the first photo several times (even though it shows the various photos in the upload box - I even positioned them in a different order). So, let's see, now that it has been fixed that I can actually upload photos on the first try, but can now I can only do so 1 at a time or it loses its mind. The ways they figure out how to mess up my blogging experience over the past year or so is amazing. At least I'm not getting the error that won't allow my to post anymore, so I'll take it.

Top 10 Finishers for 2024 Iditarod

Here are the top 10 finishers for this year's Iditarod. There are 4 women in that category at spots 5, 7, 8 and 10. Which slightly over-represents as women were about 30% of the entrants.

There are still teams on the trail, so the race is not over.

 

Surprising Scratch from 2024 Iditarod

Veteran musher Aaron Burmeister has scratched at the Unalakleet station. His dogs were all healthy and he had 11 in harness at the time. The Iditarod page doesn't have any details, just, "“to help promote the mental wellness and health of my team in the future.” - which seems to be odd wording.

Alasksnewsource has a bit more detail: He said, "They’ve been flat pretty much from Skwentna to here, just no speed, no fire, no animation, no barking," Which anyone who knows huskies (or any sled dogs), that is unusual behavior as they are always excited to get going on the trail.

The best quote shows the attitude that makes Aaron an excellent musher, and the reason for scratching even though he could have pushed forward, “It’s not fun for them, it’s not fun for me,”.

Iditarod 2024 3-11-2024 Standings Report

As of 2:50 pm (Eastern time), the Iditarod race is still well contested with several teams within a mile or 2 of each other. From the race standings on the Iditarod site:

And from the Iditarod Newsletter I receive daily at this time of year:

I believe that is incorrect, I see 3 ladies in the top 10, but maybe I am just cross eyed from staring at spreadsheets all day

Good luck to all the teams!

What a Difference a Few Days Make

On 3/7/24, my backyard was flooding from rain with nowhere to go. The ground is still frozen under the first inch or so. Except for a few isolated spots in full shade, all the snow was gone. All pics are very early morning. 1st pic is without flash then with flash

At 1:00 am this morning, I woke up to the rumble of the roof dumping snow. I got up at 1:58 am and must have took forever to brush my teeth as it was shortly after 3 am that I started making my coffee - LOL. (Since no one got it on a forum, the clocks change at 2am when we spring forward).

By then, I could hear rain pouring down. I went out on the back porch and there is still an inch or two of snow on the edge of the roof, but it has water pouring off it at the same time.

By last night, the roof had cleared and most of the snow was gone from the ground

And an interesting twist on my issues with Typepad (The last 3-4 weeks it won't let me post at all on weekends anymore as there is always a Bad Gateway error): Inserting pics this morning, I picked the no flash and with flash pics (in two separate uploads), it showed the correct pics on the preview, then when they uploaded, it uploaded two of the without flash pics. They are finding new and creative ways to irritate me for a pay service.

A Bit of Yard Work

Back on February 10, I took the opportunity on a fairly nice day to clean out the drainage ditch on the south side. I have to do this every year as the weeds/wildflowers that grow there are very tall. Before and after pics:

Yesterday, I cut down a tree limb from the east side. It has bugged me for a long time as it just sticks straight out from the tree line, parallel to the ground, about 12' up. I thought they were going to take care of it when I had the tree work done fall of 2022, but I had been mistaken. How long it is - the shed is 14' long

After cutting up the limb, I gathered all the brush from cleaning out the drainage ditch, a stack of lily stalks I had pulled in the fall, windfall branches etc and loaded up the truck. Took it all to the brush pile at the dump. I was just happy as heck that the ground at the dump was still pretty solid and not a mud run.

Not really exciting stuff, but kept me busy for a while.