Aerie Report, October 12, 2011

Bleh! We're back to the wet, dreary days. Weather.com is saying there's a good chance of showers during six of the next eight days. Looks like mushroom season is back.

Today was a showery day. That's pretty disappointing as we were just getting to peak color in the fall foliage. Now a lot of leaves have been knocked down by the rain and the colors are all subdued by the darkening overcast skies.

The hills had been bathed in various yellow hues from birch, beech, poplar, sugar maple, and ash; multiple shades of brown from the different oaks and even greens from the locusts (which are always well behind in color and spring leaving) and different fir trees. Now, some of the early bird color bearers have lost many of their leaves. I don't doubt that those early trees were in some way stressed by insect damage and disease (particularly the ash trees) or the copious amounts of water accumulating around their root systems from the heavy, heavy rains we had in August and September.

I'm glad I got the yard work done on Monday and Tuesday while we still had somewhat dry conditions. It will be a week or more before I could cut the grass again. And now that it's under cover, there's at least a chance for the wood to dry a bit more before I have to start burning it. I was a bit upset to see quite a few of the split pieces already sprouting fungus from sitting in the rain. Upset, but not surprised. This wood was from trees felled in the summer of '09. It had already been on the forest floor for two winters before I cut it for firewood. I had hoped by leaving it in full length logs it would have been a bit more protected from the various forms of fungus that are out there, but that may not have been the case. That or my leaving it in a loose heap for two months in the rain after I split it didn't do it any favors. Oh well, even punky wood will burn and give off some heat. And the price was good: nothing but a little fuel and sweat equity, baby!

I spent the day relaxing and reading. I've two novels underway (Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia and Changes by Jim Butcher) that I need to finish as I pre-ordered Terry Pratchett's latest Snuff and Amazon says it's been shipped so I've got to get cracking!