Bogieblog

Some Fall Foliage Late September 2022

The tree at the north side of the house is really looking nice. Last weekend I mowed leaves (for the most part instead of grass), and I'll have to do so again this weekend.

The variegated weigala has started changing. I can't believe I noticed it as I was passing by to check the mail. I took an isolated picture in case you can't find it in the original.

Yesterday (an off Friday), I traveled to the western part of the state to visit with friends that were up from NH,  visiting their property. Shortly before I got to Keene, NH, I saw an incredibly beautiful yellow grove of trees. The yellow was accentuated by the sun being behind them, making them almost glow. Unfortunately, traveling at 70 mph with a whole line of traffic behind me, and approaching a curve, I could not safely get slowed and stopped to get that picture. I was able to stop a distance on the other side of the curve, walk back a couple hundred feet, and take pics from the other side of the trees. The sun is behind me, instead of behind the trees, so the pictures don't get the glow effect, but still beautiful.

The first two pics are on the opposite side of the road from me and the last pic is on the same side of the road.

 

It's Official

I've been saying for weeks that I believe my place has been in a sever drought. Now it is official.

Heard on the news (in a dramatic fashion) - The last time NH has seen this kind of drought was 2020.  Dude, that was only 2 years ago.

Now, if he had said, "2 out of the last 3 years southern NH has seen severe drought," that would have been more dramatic.

Earthquake

Last night, shortly after 8 PM, was an exciting time. Felt and heard a short rumble, just long enough for me to have the thought that it was pretty late for a fully loaded log truck to be going by. Then there was a loud bang as the house felt like something had picked it up and then just dropped it. I seriously thought something nearby had exploded. It was a minor (2.3) earthquake centered about 3 miles south of me (basically at the far end of my street - just a couple of "blocks" past the T" . The funny thing is that the report I read said it was in Antrim, but the airport is in Deering. Of course another report said it was near Keene. If they were going to go for being near a larger town/city, Concord is closer (despite what Google Maps says, seriously, Concord is closer by odometer). This is the first map that I downloaded last night from Earthquake Track

These were taken from the USGS after I reported. Notice that there are reports of feeling it all the way into Vermont and MA.

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.

They Say NH Doesn't Get Tornados

And by "they", I don't mean the weather guessers. I'm talking about the general USA population that believes that NH doesn't get tornadoes. We certainly don't get the amount of tornadoes as a lot of other areas. And I would hazard a guess that we see more "straight line" events than tornadoes, but we do get a couple a year. Fortunately this one was a weak one yesterday evening when we had severe weather going thru. The video was taken in Charlestown NH (about 38 miles from me - by road).

Disclaimer - the Weather Service has yet to confirm it was a tornado, but by the looks, I'm calling it one.

A Bit of Flooding and a Bit of Snow

We had some warm temps with wind at the beginning of last week that really got the snow/ice pack to melting. That presents other issues such as a very flooded shrub garden. I don't remember it ever being quite this bad. The drainage area behind it has a small pipe that freezes up during the winter, so there is always some sort of back up each spring. Following pics taken 2/23/22, just before the freezing temps returned.

I'm pretty sure I've never seen water reach the area almost right to the corner where the tent garage used to be.

At least most of the yard was cleared of snow and the mound that develops from both roof dumpage and snow blowing the driveway has greatly reduced in size

Yesterday we received more snow, but only 6-7". I expected more as they were predicting 8-18" so went out during lunch yesterday and did an initial round of snow blowing when I had 4-5". Will have to clean up again today to take care of the berm the road plow left last night, clean off the truck (which I did not do previously), and remove the additional couple of inches from the driveway some time this morning.

Next week we are supposed to have lows in the single digits again (11* this morning), so March will start off cold with chances of snow.

Moved

Does anyone else turn a 30 minute job into 2 hours? I rerouted a light from the edge of the appliance room to the middle. I did have to install a piece of lumber to hold the box and replaced the old ceramic fixture to a new one, but that shouldn't be complicated. First I wired it backwards, but realized that before going further.My excuse was that it was dark and I thought I had placed the black wire at the copper screw, but once I got the flashlight close, it was the silver screw.

Good thing I got 2 new fixtures Thursday as I managed to break the first one right as I should have been ready to flip the breaker back on. Ah well, just proud I didn't electrocute myself.

This picture is from before the light was moved, and you saw it previously when I was happy to have replaced the 60w light bulb with the GE ultra bright LED 3-arm light.

The light in its new location

Each arm of the light is in a different position. The one closest is pointing straight down so it doesn't blind me as I am entering the room. The one on the left is at about a 45 and the back one is at a 90* angle so the light bounces of the back wall. It is still set at the lowest light setting.

Now I can see into the P61a when I clean it instead of trying to hold flashlights. I'm sure I will still use a flashlight to an extent, but not for the entire 30 minutes it takes to clean the stove.

If I hadn't broken one of the fixtures, my plan was to replace the light above the drier. The string pulled out of it a long time ago and I've been using a battery operated light there. But, the universe had other plans since the roads were too slick for me to justify going out to get a replacement. Hours upon hours of sleet  and grauple just makes a mess. I can hardly wait to try to remoev it all from the Explorer.

 

 

Two Deering Icons Pass

I lived in Deering, NH for about 25 years. I attended almost all town meetings and knew of a lot of the people in town. In the last two weeks, the free local (weekly) paper, The Messenger,  has had death announcements for two prominent residents.

The first one was Nancy Cowan. She was town clerk and tax collector for 15 years. She started the NH School of Falconry after she retired from town office. Interestingly, she was born in Kansas.

There was a facinating multi-page write up of her life in the newspaper below (pdf)

Download Messenger Nancy Cowen deceased downloaded 1-22-2022

 

In this week's Messenger, a former neighbor, Ed Naile is deceased. I used to take care of his and his wife's animals when they were away. They had a dog, Mocha, along with sheep, sometimes chickens and sometimes goats.

 

The above is the total write up, but thought I would share the entire paper as well (pdf)

Download Messenger Ed Naile deceased downloaded 1-30-2022

More Cold and a Nor'Easter

Another morning of -12 on the 27th. Glad I'm not up in the White Mountains where I have seen pics of -28

The Nor'Easter that blew thru early yesterday morning thru late last night affected mainly the coast. The town grader made its 2 passes about 4:30 pm so I immediately suited up to go out and snow blow. Wind was whipping up pretty good (not nearly like now where snow is going sideways). I had on my balaclava and cold weather riding pants (from before I had heated gear), cold weather riding gloves, my Carhardt jacket and a baseball cap. Boots, interestingly enough are my almost knee high "fashion" snow boots. They are warm and grip better on ice than any other boots I have - including my mountain climbers.

The 4" of snow was so light that most of the time I had the snow blower in 5th gear. Naturally I slowed down for the berm from the grader, around the mailbox and around the fence gates, but other than that I was pedal to the metal all the way. Even did the drainage areas for when snow starts to melt. The only thing I didn't do was clean off the Explorer.

That was probably the fastest round of snow blowing I've ever accomplished at a little under an hour.

I see the town went thru in the wee hours this morning, so will need to go out and clean that up. The wind cranked up pretty good after dark last night and I watched snow being blown south at a horizontal, some of it being lifted up higher than the street lights. So, I will also need to clean up the additional snow that fell, plus wind driven snow. The ramp is covered with a couple inches of snow, which is impressive as that is the "protected" side as well as mostly being under the 3' eave.

A Little Chilly Here

Yesterday was the coldest temperature of the 2021-2022 winter season so far.

Despite a couple of days in the hi 30's since the snow and ice storm last week, the ground level has stayed cold enough that no snow has melted. Visual representation of snow stuck to the foundation (it was wet when it hit). There is a shelf of snow that I shoveled off the ramp that can be seen between between the rails on the ramp. Pictures taken Friday, but it has not budged since then.

Now, if it were near the ground, it wouldn't be surprising that it is still there, but it is a couple of feet above ground, with about 3 rows of concrete foundation block showing beneath it.

This section is along the east wall in the basement, and encompasses part of the work shop as well as the room that the boiler, DHW heater and the big pellet stove are housed in. It seems to demonstrate that I got that part of the basement well insulated. Each room was insulated differently;

• The workshop was insulated with 1" rigid foam board then R13, then sheet rock this used 3" lumber for framing on top of the rigid foam.
• The stove room was insulated with 1" rigid foam, with Reflectix and a 1" gap to the sheet rock.This used 1" metal strips on top of the rigid foam/reflectix combination.
• The sill to both rooms was stuffed with regular insulation that is thick enough to cover the tops of the foundation blocks.
• The ceilings are not insulated.

So the stove room, using the foam / reflextix combo, uses a smaller footprint for the insulation, but seems to work just as well as the thicker combo of foam /R13. 

Doesn't really mean anything to the average person, just found it interesting