Bogieblog

Am I Trailer Trash Now?

Since getting down to having only 1 vehicle, I've been able to store pellets in the garage, so I can hold more than the 3 tons that I keep in the basement (I use 5-6 tons per year). I handle each of those tons twice just to get them home as I've loaded the bags into my vehicle, then unload/stack them in the house/garage. So, what could make my life easier?

A trailer would mean that I handle each ton once for transport. That would be great, plus I could use a trailer to transport full sheets of sheet rock or plywood (those are about 4" too wide for the Explorer to carry). Renting a trailer would not be practical or cost efficient. At the same time, buying a trailer new, is not cost efficient either - especially one that is rated for carrying a ton.

So, I have been keeping an eye on CL and FB Marketplace for used trailers. Tuesday night a home made trailer popped up that is made from the frame of a Chevy pickup. It would handle more than a ton and at 6x8, is small enough that I can park it in the yard. It also came with a couple of 8' boards with railing brackets installed for use as ramps. He even threw in what looks like a brand new strap to strap the ramps boards in as a safety measure. Total cost, $425, less than 1/4 of what a commercially available trailer that can handle a ton costs.

Wednesday night I went to look at it, and it followed me home, literally.

Yesterday, besides mowing leaves, I cleared out invasive roses and other brush from the ditch between my property and the former swamp. The load was small enough I could have fit it in the Explorer (just barely), but it was a wet, stinking mess and I decided to keep that crud outside of my truck. I wrapped the crud tightly in a plastic sheet so I wouldn't lose any of it on the road and irritate drivers behind me.

I really like that it has the stake sides so any of the sides can be removed for easy loading/unloading. That is unlike most of the commercial trailers they make nowadays as the side rails are welded on and the back is a 6-8' ramp. I also like the larger car tires instead of the 13-15" wheels on most commercial-made trailers. It travels well behind the truck. I never fully appreciated how wide the Explorer really is since I have to really crane my neck to see the sides of the trailer, which is 6..5' wide.

Now I just have to get my brain wrapped around backing up. I'm sure I was quite entertaining to the others at the dump's brush pile as I navigated, renavigated, re-renavigated :)

Fall Clean Up

We went straight from A/C season to heating season this fall. about 10 days ago the coldest morning was in the 50's, while most were in the high 60's. Since then we went to lows in the 40's and highs in the low 50's without any sun for solar gain. I used the minisplit to provide heating at night for a couple of days, but on Wednesday got the P43 unpacked from storage and it has been keeping the main floor warm. since then. Yesterday the high was 60, and there was some sun, so the pellet stove didn't run for 10-12 hours.

Sunday I picked up the last ton of pellets from the local store so I now have almost 3 tons in the basement and 2 tons in the garage

I also got the leaves mowed on Sunday. I mowed leaves again on Tuesday and Thursday, with plenty more left in the trees.

I mowed the neighbor's yard yesterday. The grass was still short enough that it really didn't need mowing, but since I wanted to mow his leaves in his back yard, I did the whole thing.I also started up the snowblower to make sure it was good after sitting since March. I added Seafoam to the gas before attempting to start it. I did have to prime it a couple of extra time before it would start, but it ran well and I let it run for several minutes to clean out any gunk in the lines.

I'll mow my yard today - although about 1/2 of that will just be for leaf pick up. My front yard doesn't collect leaves so I haven't shortened any grass there during my earlier leaf mowing.

Voluteers

Last weekend, while I wasw mowing, I saw some unfamiliar flowers along the drainage ditch on the south side of the house. Since I didn't have my reading glasses on, I couldn't see them well, so later went out to take a better look.

Much to my surprise, they were volunteer turtleheads. Now, I have turtleheads in the shade garden and in the new raised garden that both reside near there. But they are not that pale color, so they aren't wanderers from the domesticated plantings. Another curious thing is that they were blooming before the domesticated variety. Picture of where the shade garden turtleheads were in the shade garden

The plants in the raised bed only have buds but no blooms yet, so I don't have a picture of those. but I do know they are a hot pink

So, the volunteers appear to be a true wild flower, and this link shows them to be white with just a blush of pink. The white turtlehead is said to be the chief plant host for the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly larva. I do see those butterflies around my gardens, especially around the black eyed Suzies. However, those butterflies could just as easily be Harris' Checkerspots, which like flat top Asters, which there are an abundance of around here too. Heck, I could have both types of butterflies for all I know.

I'll have to remember next year not to mow / weed wack those volunteers down.

Scarab Beetles

Cop Car wrote about caterpillars. Although I usually don't see caterpillars, it reminded me of the change in insects that I had observed last summer into this summer.

Early last summer we went into drought and that didn't break until the very end of June. It was so dry last summer that even the swamp next to me dried up. However, the invasive roses never showed much stress, so I'm sure the soil still held onto moisture at a level that was still accessible to deeper roots..

Interestingly, that is when the blue mud daubers became abundant visitors to my gardens. Never having seen them before, that I remember, and I had to look them up. They were everywhere there were flowers. My yard was overrun with some sort of white moth (I have forgotten the worm they produce, but they were destructive) as well as tussock caterpillars (a leftover from the year before, when they first appeared). Bumble bees and other bees were about normal, as were butterflies.

Hummingbird moths only appear, that I've seen anyway, every 2-3 years. This year has been one of the years I have had the pleasure of observing some.

This summer, I rarely see butterflies and have yet to see a monarch. Bumblebees are rare too, but there are some tiny bees that are in abundance. I haven't seen many wasps, except the blue mud daubers are still around - but not to the extent they were last year.

I am usually overrun by Japanese Beetles that annihilate domesticated rose and day lily flowers (they don't come out until after the invasive roses bloom so they don't bother those). This year I did not see any Japanese beetles - not one. Instead, there was a beetle that I have never had at either house, and again had to look up

Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures until after the main invasion was over. These are the leftovers and doesn't show the hoard that were on the plants before that. When I first saw them, I had thought they were sick Japanese beetles since they have the same shape. I believe I identified them as a Shining Leaf Chafer beetle (a scarab beetle type). They weren't nearly as destructive to flowers or foliage as the Japanese beetles were, and the life cycle was definitely much shorter - lasting a couple of weeks instead of sticking around for a couple of months.

Something I have seen this year in relative abundance has been American Pelecinids. Some years I see a couple, other years I see none, but this year is a boom year for them. Although their larva parasitize scarab beetles, I'm pretty sure they aren't the reason for the Japanese Beetle dearth, but at the same time cannot explain it. In the last 20 years I can't recall ever NOT having any at either place. And, it wouldn't explain the presence of the Shining Leaf Chafer beetle either. Ah well, one of life's mysteries.

I'm sure there have bee other anomalies in the insect world that I have forgotten about, but at least it gave me something to post about :)

Day Lilies

Since all the rain the last two weeks, the day lilies have decided to put out buds and flowers at a record pace. If there is no name, it is because I have no clue

Night Beacon in the shrub garden

American Revolution in the roadside garden

Purple D'Oro

I don't always have a green thumb. These butterfly bushes are an example. One I killed outright, the other has only grown to 6" tall so far.

I went to Agway to see if they had anything to replace them with and I found some interesting stuff

On the right is an Echibekia Summerina Yellow. No, I didn't get confused, it is a cross between Echinacea and Rudbekia

On the left is an Echibekia Summerina Orange

Between the two, I planted a Rainbow Rhythm Tiger Swirl day lily (no blooms, so I made do with the label

Now, it will probably never rain again this summer and I'll have to water them regularly to get them established :)

Drought has Broken

For this area anyway. Northern NH still need rain.

Got another half inch of rain 7/8-7/9

Before last night's rain of at least 1.5" (still raining), the drainage area on the north side of my property still had standing water. The ditch on the south side of the house has had running water in it all week. Glad I got my yard mowed Friday night as a lot of it was still damp to wet at that point.

Went up to Concord yesterday. Half way there the A/C in the Explorer started blowing hot, extremely humid air (the humidity was my first clue since it is sky high). I had taken a shower just before leaving the house as I had mowed the neighbor's lawn and had ended up soaking wet - needed another shower by the time I got to the big city. I had the compressor replaced 3 months after I bought the truck in 2018. It's only been driven about 20k miles since then. At least half that mileage was winter driving, so the A/C hasn't been worked too much. Maybe it's just a busted line or something.

On Sunday, I was coming up the ramp and saw this funky looking bug

Measuring the label later, the thing was 1-1/8" long. I Googled black and yellow beetle, but the closest I could come was a locust borer. However, the descriptions said it had red legs and the pictures clearly show yellow legs. Also it is smaller than 1" and the head portion was all black. Another bug that was similar also had red legs, and although the head was striped, it didn't have the big black patch on its back.

I contacted the UNH Extension for an ID. They came back on Tuesday indicating it is a sugar maple borer, with the following information:

This is called a sugar maple borer (looks a lot like the locust borer, but is much larger and the pattern is different). The sugar maple borer is found throughout the northeast and usually lives in the trunks of the trees. The presence of these beeltes [sic] can be observed on the trunk of affected trees at the outset of an infestation. Galleries excavated by the young larvae can be recognized from the bark dust piles soaked with sap that are present near egg-laying sites. Another obvious sign of attack is the presence of an elongated swelling in the bark, which will eventually split open, leaving a wound.

Damage results from the larval galleries which disrupt sap flow and reduce the tree's vitality. Some branches will die after being cut off from the sap supply, and if there are many galleries, the whole tree may die. The sugar maple borer, is believed to be native to North America, and is considered the most destructive pest of maple

Pretty bug but I'm hoping it was just stopping for rest on its way somewhere else. I only have one sugar maple and it is one I planted a couple of years ago. I checked it out and it seems fine. Lots of other maples around, but everything I've read claims it is exclusive to sugar maples.

More Rain!

This is the rain I got last weekend (Thursday thru 7/4/21)

This is what I got 7/8 - 7/9 (little of that came from hurricane Elsa)

Most of the rains weren't heavy so the ground soaked in almost all of it. It finally hit saturation point on 7/9 and I started to get puddles in the back yard where in a normal year, that much rain would have given me a small stream. The puddles were gone yesterday. There is also ponding at the drainage area between the shrub garden on the north side and the apartment building. That ponding is still there (or was yesterday afternoon).

I mowed both yards last Monday (7/5). Even with the high humidity and 5.5" of recent rain, the neighbor's yard dried out enough I could mow yesterday. I'll need to mow what I can of my yard today - I won't be able to do the drainage area, and right now it is a maybe over on the swamp side* area.

All that moisture has been good for some of the flowers that appear this time of year.

A yellow day lily that has no name because I didn't plant it. It just appeared 3 or 4 years ago within the line of common orange day lilies in the area between the front door steps and the garage. The orange day lilies did not have a good showing this year as this is not a garden that I watered.

This day lily has no name because I either lost the tag when I planted it in the driveway garden, or it was given to me by someone else

My Funny Valentine in the roadside garden

This has no name but I call it "Molly's" or Midwinter's" day lily because I got it from a gal on the FHC forum (real name / forum name). This is planted next to the front steps on the southwest corner.

Echinacea

Black Eyed Suzies

A funky fungus that has grown on a landscape timber in the last week

Mystery flower. Several of these showed up at the far corner of the roadside garden - outside the garden but next to the stones. I certainly didn't plant it and this is the first year it has shown up. Someone on the FHC forum identified it as a Tall Bell Flower and that certainly looks like what it is. A couple more are growing next to the neighbor's shed that is sitting right at the property line (the pin is literally at one corner of the shed).

Between mowing yards on 7/5, I cooled of by reading in the sitting area. This squirrel was not happy with me (I had to lighten the picture quite a bit for the squirrel to show against the bark)

Picture I took yesterday

This is a bulb that the dang squirrels or chipmunks have dug up out of the roadside garden. I only plant bulbs that supposedly they don't like and won't bother. That is either a daffodil or a hyacinth (most likely daffodil).

*The swamp is no longer a swamp but has been cleared and filled in with a massive amount of sand and rip rap. But I don't want to call it the vacant lot since I'm sure someone will build, or he'll put up a trailer soon and sell it.

Shed Variance

So, I'm looking at putting up a new shed. One would think this would be easy since the town does not require a build permit for a shed less than 200 sq/ft. The only place it makes sense to place a shed at this point, I would need a variance for because it is too close to the lot line. I need to be 20' from back lines and 15' from side lines. I pretty much want to place the shed 15' from a back line and about 5-8' from the side line.

So here is where it gets interesting. I need a lot line map of my property that shows existing buildings and proposed buildings (all to scale). I was going to do my own since I know where one pin is, when I stumbled across a complexity. The front of my property does not end where I thought it ended. I thought it ended at the drainage ditch next to the empty lot because of where the previous owner had the fence. After measuring the 165' the front of the lot extends, I found that it should go to 15' beyond the drainage ditch. The fence location still made sense because of all the water drainage - he wouldn't have wanted to put the posts in there. The back is 150' and is close to where I thought it was.

The complexity is because some developer bought the swamp next door, determined it isn't swamp (ahem), cleared the brush and brought in 20+ trucks of sand to fill in (plus who knows how many trucks of rip rap). This person did not have the land surveyed so guessed. All I'm saying is it looks as if his work came mighty close to my lot and when he sells, the people will naturally assume that they own the vegetation he left to the ditch.

So, I decided to have my lot surveyed. With all the building going on all the surveyors are very busy so I have to wait until the end of summer, early fall. As an aside, the local surveyor also would argue with that lot not being swamp - he knows of the property of which I spoke. Then I have to submit the plans to the planning board, where they will schedule a hearing. I have to appear at the hearing in person, where they may or may not approve (or may ask for more information which requires a new submital).

Once they approve, I have 180 days to make substantial progress on the build or the variance is pulled. Substantial means more than the site work. Site work in this case would just mean to have some gravel laid to even up the section, so that is no big deal. But, since I wouldn't want to order the shed until I knew I had the variance, and sheds from HD are up to a 3 month backlog, that puts me into the middle of winter.

Nothing is ever easy.

Week of 5/30/21 Gardens

If you remember, the winter of 2019 was not kind to the rhododendrons in front of the house. The part that really gets rhodies is winter winds since that will dry out the leaves. 2019 was particularly brutal in that regard, and this is how the rhodies looked May of that year (order: from mailbox, from driveway, from road)

I waited until mid summer to prune out obviously dead areas, but left branches that seemed to be recovering. The summer of 2020, the rhodies were still in bad enough shape that I didn't even bother taking pictures (IIRC, only the very bottom bloomed anyway). I pruned out a few more branches that were struggling. Then the drought hit. I watered them a few times (when the leaves were super drooped), but not many since I was conserving water while trying to keep the new roadside garden alive. I figured this year would be another bust for the poor beleaguer things.

Well, obviously they have recovered just fine and my doubts were misplaced (mailbox, driveway, road, front door)

And this picture here pretty much sums up why I needn't bother putting plants on my front porch

They are once again the envy of the neighborhood. Even people going down rt 149 can enjoy the view of those beauties.

One of the new peonies, Alertie, is blooming

Yesterday I picked a bouquet of nicely scented flowers for the house. Order: Alertie peony, Black is Black iris, some sort of purple iris

Yesterday it got up to 92 degrees. We did have a late afternoon thundershower that brought a quick 1/2" of rain and a drop in temperature to 73. It is supposed to be in the 90's every day until Thursday - and the humidity high (yesterday it was 70%). Our average amount of days over 90 is somewhere around 10-15. I've already had 5 or 6 of those days. Because of those expected temps, I installed the window A/C in the office early yesterday morning. I was holding off hoping the mini split system would be installed before it became an issue, but that was not to be.

 

Week of 5/23/21

Mother Nature is going all over the map for May, we are either 15-20 below the average temp, or 15-20 above the average temp. I've had at least 4 days at, or above, 90* already (maybe 5). There were also lot of days in the upper 80's, and after the cold front blew thru Thursday evening, this weekend we have been down in the 40's. Right as I was getting ready to put the pellet stove to rest with a full hopper I am looking at the possibility of putting another bag of pellets in there to keep the house warm until Tuesday morning, when the temps will skyrocket again. I'll have to reinstall the portable A/C; it exhausts thru the window next to the stove so I had to remover it Friday morning. Fortunately the portable A/C's are much easier to install/remove than window units, so it's no big deal.

Last Sunday I got the vegies planted. I had to lay down another course of stone (actually changed it from a square to a long rectangle) in order to install the 3rd planter so that each of the tomatoes will be able to use the fence for support. The red rings are around tomato plants and the wire is around pepper plants. To the left of the peppers are basil plants I got from the local TSC.

Monday I took off about 1/3 of the day and cleaned up the roadside garden. I pulled back all the old mulch, added manure and humus, then spread new cedar mulch.

In the last couple of days, some iris that Cop Car gave me bloomed in the driveway garden

The Black is Black iris I planted a few weeks ago bloomed. It has a very light sent with overtones of citrus. I cut that stalk after it blew over from the cold front coming in and it is now in the living room.

The two azaleas above the new garden bloomed also. I planted those back in 2017. Gibraltar (top) has 6 rounded petals and the Mandarin Lights (bottom) has a classic star shape with 5 points.

Interestingly, even though when I planted them they were visually different colors of orange, they really are that close in color now. Picture from the day they were planted (Gibralter on the left).

One of the Rose of Sharons I planted last fall has started to leaf out, the second has not. That is interesting as they are planted within 5 feet of each other, so I'm unsure what the deal is. I did a scratch test, and the un-leafed one still shows green, so I'm hoping between watering and the 1.25" of rain we received yesterday will do the trick. Both RoS's came from an FHC'er from down in MA - he was digging out volunteers and I asked if I could have a couple.

This weekend has been wet and cold. Originally it was supposed to just be cool with occasional showers. I'm not complaining about the precipitation we have received thus far, and hope that we get the inch or more they are forecasting for today. However, it does put a crimp in my plans of finishing laying of stones for the expansion of the garden above the azaleas.