Looks like my farming friend Threecollie was a tad more accurate than the weather wonks in her predictions. After viewing Wednesday evening's Mackerel Sky she said: "Not long wet....not long dry." See here where she's got a lovely photo of that Mackerel Sky.
The Bolt Hole experienced a brief shower at 3 AM, and more at 6:30 AM, 10:30 AM and finally a couple of quick T-storms that passed north and south of here between 3 PM and 5 PM. "Not long wet....not long dry." Indeed!
It was much warmer this morning when I did get out of bed. At 6 AM it was already 58-60 degrees. When the sun was out (between showers) it got up to around 75 degrees. Nice but still below the average high. And, being as the weather has been so cool to date, the damn black flies are still around while the dragonflies aren't.
I checked the garage after the morning rains and found no interior drips. Since the early showers were light, I really didn't expect to find any. But the afternoon T-storms, while not passing directly overhead, came pretty heavy and close. Still no leaks. While that may bode well for rain storms, I'm sure when the snow arrives in November and a layer of heavy wet snow and ice accumulated on the roof some nails are going to pop and there will be some leakage. Only thing that prevent that is a new roof. But first I'll have to work on the west wall and the underpinnings of the northeast corner and.....
******
I spent time between rain showers clearing out some more invasive honeysuckle shrubs. I cut out three from just southwest of the garage in an attempt to check the slope of the land so we can divert rain and melt water from going into the garage. Without a dozer or at least a skid steer that will be a challenge. All I've got is a long handled shovel. Trying to rent a skid steer, like I did when I built the barn, is now next to impossible in NYS unless you're a contractor with a hefty insurance policy. *sigh* and the cost of having someone come in to do little more than half a days job is far more costly than the rental would be...if I could get one.
After lunch I moved over to the east side of the yard to clear some huge honeysuckle shrubs from around an old foundation only to discover there was a substantial apple tree in their midst. Over 6 inches DBH (diameter at breast height) it's easily 30 feet tall and--aside from row upon row of sapsucker holes drilled into the trunk--looks very healthy. I'll be back over there tomorrow to clear out more of the honeysuckle.
******
One thing I've noticed as I work around the yard is that there are no Monarch Butterflies to be seen. There are plenty of Yellow Swallowtails and orange and black friteraries. (Excuse the spelling.) There's plenty of healthy milkweed upon which the Monarch normally lays its eggs and upon which the caterpillars feed but there are no caterpillars or adult Monarchs. Perhaps the cold weather up north has caused them to stay further south than usual.
1 comment:
Thanks for the link and the kind words. Can't take credit for the old weather saying...I learned it from the first farmer I worked for back in the day. He had dozens of them and they were (and remain) so accurate.
The boss says to try Warner's
315-336-0311. We bought our skid steer from them and they might be able to help you.
Or Springer's 518-568-2016
You may have already tried them or they may be too far away from the Bolt Hole, but they sometimes rent without all the strings attached. Sometimes.....We have had the same experience with a lot of places we used to rent bulldozers from. They know us, but they want a walloping big insurance policy...which we don't have.
Post a Comment