Bogieblog

Sunrise in Goffstown

This year we have regularly gotten fantastic sunrises and Thursday I stopped to get some pictures.

Rocking it

Last weekend I had torn the rock wall beside the tent garage apart to aid in clearing out vines and detritus (including glass, cans and black top :0). I got the rock wall put back together - which is a lot harder than tearing it apart. The last time I messed around with large rocks, I was a lot younger and in better shape overall, so getting the rocks uphill was a challenge.

Here is a cropped picture of the original rock wall (from 2016) so you can see only the rock placement

Looks a little better organized now - definitely not a professional job, but I'm happy with it.

Then I started laying landscape rocks to hold a garden bed in front - where the poison ivy was smothered. Over the last couple of years I have gleaned free landscape rocks from CL,  but I didn't have quite enough to finish these 2 courses (past the telephone pole). Actually, I had enough for the top course, but not the bottom - fortunately the local Aubuchons had some perfect matches so I wasn't worried about it. However,

I wanted 3 rows of landscape rocks and Aubuchons did not have very many of those matches, so I was unable to put a matching white band on top. So I went to Concord to grab another color so it looks intentional that I put in different colors (as opposed to being, well, cheap).

Then I decided, 4 bands would be better and I loved the "palomino" color of the new rocks (my choices were palomino or and orangish bay) so here is what it ended up being

Now the white looks weird to me. I'm hoping that grass will soon cover it enough that it looks okay. Or, I can stain the fronts later. Or, I can take out the 4th row. I like the presence that the 4th row gives as a focal point (3 rows kind of get lost with the large rock wall behind). However, that could change whenever I get some shrubs in there so it is still fluid now.

And, last night as I got ready to come in, I found that my first iris has bloomed

Phone camera didn't quite get the focus right, but it was the end of the day and the skies have been hazy from the Canadian wildfires. Here is a picture at 7 pm on Friday that shows the effects of the smoke - way before sunset.

No more work on the yard today as I have a HOG chapter meeting later this morning, then I have to get to mowing.

NH Ice Runway

For Cop Car - a cool little place to put a plane down

 

A Bit of Ice

I had forgotten that I had stopped to take pictures of Grimes Field, here in my town, on my way to a meeting last Saturday. Then I read Ruth's comment on a previous post where she commented, "Yah, we tried to take the dogs to the park yesterday, but the entire area was ice under snow." I'll bet the dog owners that use the park for exercising their dogs could feel her pain:

It was just plain luck that I went by that field as it is a way to get around backed up traffic on the main road. Not any faster, in fact many times will still get stuck behind the vehicles you were trying to avoid at the light, so I rarely use that road.

Weird Snow Season

This year the weather pattern has not been quite what one usually expects. It seems as if every time we get snow, either right behind it, or shortly after we get a massive rain and a day of mid 40 to mid 50 temps. That works great for keeping the snow drifts down but that water has nowhere to go. And then right after the rains, we get single digits that freezes everything in place. So, as it was most of last summer, the house is surrounded by water - or frozen streams and ponds in this case.

It is hard to tell, but the pipe on the other side of the fence is still frozen so the melt water doesn't make it to the drain by the street. There is a small catch basin back there that has overflowed. So the water has spread all the way up to the raised beds. and pallets

Although it doesn't look it in this picture, the area by the swamp is an ice arena. It goes all the way from the new maple tree on the left (trunk is wrapped in a blue label), up the slope to the stalks from day lilies and all the way to the corner of the fence. The ice has to be a good 6-8" thick (or more).

The garage has flooded a couple of times, but no worse than spring time. However, I do have to remember to install the diversion pipe for the sump pump before the rain hits, but remove it before it gets frozen into place.

Each year the challenge is different and at least we haven't been getting some of the nastier weather that has hit the Midwest, so I'll survive.

Swamp Fog

On November 2 I was driving home and stopped to take pictures of the swamp fog at Perkins Pond In Weare. Pictures presented in order taken. Weird how the two that are almost the same vista show different lighting even though taken with the same phone, from the same place (my truck), within a minute of each other.

And just for fun, because I rarely retouch photos except for cropping, I decided to let the computer correct the colors.

Last of the Fall Color

On 11/3, shortly after noon I snapped a couple more pictures of the October Glory Maple.

Good thing I got those pictures as a couple of hours later both it and the burning bush were bare of leaves from strong winds.

The next day I snapped these photos of the yard - how it has looked pretty much since September (besides the leaves)

The side of the yard by the swamp is also under water. I didn't bother taking pictures as there are so many leaves on top, it isn't obvious in pictures. Sunday afternoon I scooped all the leaves out of the culvert between my yard and the trailer to help the pond there drain. The culvert wasn't clgged and was running well, but I figured that being proactive wasn't a bad thing.

Previously, on Sunday morning, I had been driving to Concord to attend a HOG meetig and turned around to take these pictures.

It is not unusual for the High Tide to flood during the spring when the Contoocook River runs high from rains and snow melt. But it rarely floods during the fall. On my way back home, going over the bridge on Rt 149, I saw the river was nearly as high as I'd ever seen it and close to lapping over the stone wall that some apartments are built on. Those apartments are in an old mill building that was designed to let flood water thru, so there was no danger there, but was startling to see.

NH is still very fortunate that we aren't in drought and dealing with fires, nor is there much true, life-altering flooding, and my basement has stayed dry, so all is good. The biggest danger is we've had high winds for the last couple of days, which can take trees down because of soil saturation not allowing the tree roots to hold itself in place.

 

4th Nor'Easter

Was a bust. Although I drove thru a few flurries going to work, it only stuck on the road for my first couple of miles. By the time I got home from work, there was no evidence of any snow having fallen. Oh sure, there is plenty of snow still on the ground but the paths and driveway were clear.

Although not warm, it has been just above freezing the last couple of days so the paths are getting wider. However, the dusting of snow this morning has covered all paths again with about 1/2" of snow and it may not melt as it is supposed to be cold and windy. Warmer temps coming at the end of the week though!

Third Nor'easter in Two Weeks

Once again I worked from home during a Nor'easter. I split the snow blowing into two sessions, and the snow was a little lighter, so it wasn't as hard to deal with. We got about 14" then another couple of inches the next day. Due to some settling and a bit of meltage, the snow pictures don't look much different from the previous storm.

We were due for a 4th Nor'Easter this coming Tuesday and Wednesday, but the weather models now say nope, it will pass out to sea. Thank goodness since there will be little melting with daytime temps in the 20's until the middle of next week and night time temps in the single digits. Of course, there are still several days to go before the storm arrives, so it could still change its mind and hit us for grins and giggles.

Two Nor'Easters

New England has experienced two Nor'Easters in less than a week. The first was during astronomical high tide and affected 3 or 4 tides to devastating affect on the seacoast of several states. Parts of NY got 2+ FEET of snow. Boston experienced 80+ MPH gusts. Tens of thousands of people lost power for days. Yes, Mother Nature came in like a lion.

I was lucky and only got a bit of snow and a bit of wind. Nothing unmanageable and I never lost power. The second Nor'Easter came 5 days after the first one - starting Wednesday evening and winding down on Thursday. Some of the people that had lost power in the first storm, still didn't have power back by the time of the second. The forecasts were all over the place. Depending on the source, my area was to get 5-8", 8-14" or 18-24" of snow. The day before the second storm hit, Red-winged blackbirds massed in the trees behind the house. Here is a crappy phone picture on max zoom because my camera's battery was dead. Everything that appears to be a leaf is a bird. The racket was almost deafening.

I chose to work from home on Thursday as did many people I work with. By 5 AM I had the ramp cleared of roof dumpage and logged in to work for an hour before snow blowing (I was being nice to the neighbors). At 6 AM I grabbed the snow blower and started clearing the driveway. The snow was heavy and snow blowing was slow dealing with wet snow that liked to just pack and push instead of going into the blades. I had to do everything in first gear and even stopping and starting progress to get the snow to cooperate.

 

Usually I can accomplish all of the clean up with one tank of gas. However, this time I ran a tank out after only getting the driveway, parking pad and to the mailbox clear (clear is relative since it was still snowing). I also got about 2/3 of the path to the tent garage cleared.

 

After running out of gas I took a break then filled the tank again and started working on the paths. After 2 hours, my job was complete. Or so I thought until I opened the back door to throw out seed for the birds

 

Once I got the ramp cleared and fed the birds I got back to remoting in to work.

That afternoon I took pictures around the house

Those at the coast again suffered massive power outages, many are still out and the power companies are saying that they will have power back by tomorrow evening. Although the tides were not astronomical highs this time, the previous damage to the seawalls was bad enough that more damage to homes was sustained. Part of I-95 was shut down for 3 hours because of power lines down across the highway. Although my area got more snow, again I didn't not lose power.

 And now a 3rd Nor'Easter looks to be in the works for Tuesday and Wednesday. We are paying for the mild February :O