Bolt Hole Report, August 13, 2009

I drove up to the Bolt Hole on Tuesday morning towing the empty utility trailer. Wanting to avoid having to pay any tolls of the NY Thruway, I followed a new route along Routes 13, 20 and 12B to Utica. Interesting ride. I'd not been on the section of 13 from Cortland east nor on that part of 20 or 12B before. It shaved some 20 miles off the distance traveled but added almost 30 minutes to the time involved because of all the small towns I had to travel through and the lowered speed limits. The antiques fair in Morrisville didn't help much either.

The route took me past the place I had dropped off the lawn mower for a tune up and repairs (only had water in the gas tank, thank goodness) so I stopped there to ransom the machine.

Once at the Bolt Hole, I unloaded the mower and put it to use. Worked great at cutting the "front" yard, rousting out the toads from the deep grass, and mincing one that proved to be too slow to get out of the way. I normally try to avoid slicing and dicing toads, but this one didn't move out of the deep grass until it got cut in half. The same thing happened to a garter snake the next morning when I cut the rest of the lawn and started work on the grass beneath the apple trees. Gives new meaning to the saying "the quick and the dead."

Speaking of "the quick and the dead," the mice are back. As twilight approached Tuesday evening the deer mice started to tap dance across the tins on the shelf in the living room. The set up a racket that would make Buddy Rich envious. Disturbed me enough that I got the traps out and refreshed the peanut butter bait and set them up. Within minutes I had my first kill and there were four more dead mice by Wednesday morning. Four more last night for a total of nine...so far. I need a weasel.

As with the mice, the red squirrels are also back. Outside, thankfully, but still noisier than I like. They seem to take umbrage with any little disturbance to their world including my opening the blinds and windows or a deer walking through the apple trees. Since they are staying outside, I wouldn't mind so much if they weren't such early risers. I mean, 5:30 AM is way too early guys! Then again, I wouldn't have seen the doe in the apple trees if they hadn't awakened me.

Note to self: Before running over what looks like a fallen apple in the grass, make sure it's not a 3" diameter tree stump. Plays havoc with the lawn mower blade. Luckily I had a spare. Now I'll have to get another.

The weather has been great. Sunny and warm (hey! it is August!) with only one passing T-storm Wednesday afternoon. The highs have been between 75 and 80 degrees but the night time lows have been 55-60. It's supposed to be even cooler this weekend. Terry says the Aerie has been slight warmer and wetter with T-storms most of Wednesday afternoon into the evening.

On a weather related note: NOAA reports that the July temperatures in the US were below average with six states (including PA) recording their lowest July temperatures ever. (Watts Up With That has the story here.)

Tonight is supposed to be a peak night for the Persied Meteor Shower. I might just have to go outside after dark to take a peek.