Taken earlier today, probably around 9:39 AM... Near the back end of the yard at the border of the woods...
About ten minutes after I took these I went a little further in the back and just about forty feet away the top of one of the sassafras trees snapped off... Spoiled the nice view and almost squashed my tractor... I checked on the tractor and took off before more branches came down... It looks now like a few oaks lost some big limbs... Well, more wood for the firepit this summer.
sassafras! is different thing from sasparilla?
tractor with the explodie battery?
Yup, I think it's made of sassafras root... Well, originally... God knows what it's made of now... Sassafras is supposedly one of Long Island's valuable resources back in colonial times... That and pitch pine... Those crappy gnarly pines that grow abundantly on the south shore. And yeah that is the same tractor... It shall remain battery less until spring.
Naa, more like Kylo Ren... That's my daughter's light saber... And my paintball mask... I should have switched the light saber to sith mode, then I could have been Darth Vicore... (former username was Lord Vicore)...
Taken earlier today, probably around 9:39 AM... Near the back end of the yard at the border of the woods...
About ten minutes after I took these I went a little further in the back and just about forty feet away the top of one of the sassafras trees snapped off... Spoiled the nice view and almost squashed my tractor... I checked on the tractor and took off before more branches came down... It looks now like a few oaks lost some big limbs... Well, more wood for the firepit this summer.
...so does the wood smell like Root Beer when burned?
Naa, it's a little bit fragrant, sometimes it's strong, mostly barely noticeable... It's the roots and leaves that really smell the most (sasparilla/root beer)... The roots and leaves have a bunch of medicinal purposes... The wood dries out quickly and is great for kindling... It might even burn a little quicker, I think it has an oil or something in it...?
...yeah, you can really taste the difference between the large corporate made root beers (which use a bunch of artificial flavorings) and those still brewed with sassafras. Though more expensive, I choose the latter.
Naa, more like Kylo Ren... That's my daughter's light saber... And my paintball mask... I should have switched the light saber to sith mode, then I could have been Darth Vicore... (former username was Lord Vicore)...
Naa, more like Kylo Ren... That's my daughter's light saber... And my paintball mask... I should have switched the light saber to sith mode, then I could have been Darth Vicore... (former username was Lord Vicore)...
Lovely winter scenery you've got there, McGyver. Wouldn't want to have to shovel all that snow but gosh, it looks so pretty. Weatherman is saying we're going to get hit with anywhere from 20 to 50 centimeters of the stuff, starting tonight. Main blizzard hits tomorrow, right now it's getting a little windy and very cold, got a -15 windchill -- that's only around 5 Farenheit -- but not so bad to keep from making a supply run. I'm hoping we don't lose power, they had problems at our falling-apart hydro station all last week and we were on alert to conserve so as to avoid rotating blackouts like happened the winter before last.
In any case, I'm holing up in my nest until it's all over. Can't wait for Spring to get here ... even if our spring starts somewhere around the middle of June, lasts maybe all of three weeks and frequently gets mistaken for Summer.
Lovely winter scenery you've got there, McGyver. Wouldn't want to have to shovel all that snow but gosh, it looks so pretty. Weatherman is saying we're going to get hit with anywhere from 20 to 50 centimeters of the stuff, starting tonight. Main blizzard hits tomorrow, right now it's getting a little windy and very cold, got a -15 windchill -- that's only around 5 Farenheit -- but not so bad to keep from making a supply run. I'm hoping we don't lose power, they had problems at our falling-apart hydro station all last week and we were on alert to conserve so as to avoid rotating blackouts like happened the winter before last.
In any case, I'm holing up in my nest until it's all over. Can't wait for Spring to get here ... even if our spring starts somewhere around the middle of June, lasts maybe all of three weeks and frequently gets mistaken for Summer.
Newfoundland, isn't that where those lovely black dogs come from, the ones that can be trained to wander around with little barrels of Whisky or Brandy to warm people up in the cold weather.
The ones with the whiskey are brown & white St. Bernards but I'm sure our famous black Newfoundland dogs could be trained to carry a similar barrel. Would likely have Screech in it, though, that's our traditional strong drink. Very strong swimmers, those dogs, with their water resistant coats and webbed feet, many a sailor or fisherman in trouble has been rescued by a Newfoundland. We also used to use them for pulling sleds in the winter and carts of wood in summer. Now they're mostly show dogs and pets, though a few still work. You need lots of room for a dog like that, with plenty of access to the outdoors and the sea because they just love the water.
Yes I had a friend who had 2 she used to show. Their tails are great for clearing the contents off a coffee table when they are happy. She used to drive around with a sticker in her car window which said "NO we are not black St Bernards"
Lol! If you are going to have even 1 Newfoundland, you need a big house and keep all your breakables high up/off the furniture. Also better invest in lots of mops to wipe up all the drool because when they're even slightly hot they produce gallons of it. We had quite a cleanup the summer two of our neighbour's (who has since moved to the US) got loose and paid us a visit. They were young pups about the size of small bears -- and yes, they have been mistaken for black bears by inexperienced hikers (probably Mainland tourists) who've sometimes encountered them in the woods. Lovely animals in spite of the mess and I'd be in doggy heaven (odd place since I'm a cat person but there you go!) if I had one of my own but alas I haven't the means. Even though I live in a rural area that's practically their natural habitat, their upkeep is beyond me at the present.
Send some of that warm weather our way, willya? Weatherman is on TV now with details on the "Blizzard of the Week", looks like my area will get anywhere from 25-35 cm. (10-13 inches) of snow with very high winds before it turns into freezing rain and ice pellets Tuesday night. Which same big mess is exactly the right combination for all sorts of accidents and power failures.
Oh, and Hydro just had to announce they've applied for yet another rate increase due to having low reserves of water and needing to use that falling-down station in Holyrood even more now to make up for the shortage. Not happy times this winter down on "Da Rock", nosirree!
Morning TV said the temperature in Buffalo (50miles North of here) was 13F at 7:30 AM. They're predicting -1F tomorrow. Cold but not nearly as cold as previous years. For me it's been actually quite a gentle winter. Warm-warm-warm-snow-cold-warm-melt-snow-cold-warm-melt-snow-cold-...
...that's brutal, and the reason Why I left North Central Wisconsin for the wet but usually milder climate of the Northwest.
Yeah our brief February Spring is over for now and it's back to water falling from the sky (thankfully not in frozen form). City radar map is entirely green with a few yellow blobs (heavier rain). Still rather mild though, considering.
Going to be -13° (-29° "real feel") in my old hometown of Steven's Point Friday night/Caturday morning.
....climate is a very delicate balance and when that balance is disturbed (as it has been since the Industrial Revolution), that is when weather patterns become extreme as it attempts to compensate for the anomaly.
This is why we here in the Northwest have been experiencing a persistent El Niño that has actually created a pool of warm water in the Gulf of Alaska for the last couple years. This has resulted un uncharacteristically warm and dry conditions in an area renowned for usually being rainy and cool most of the year. It has also affected both ocean currents and the jet stream, pushing the jet northward far out in the Pacific. When the jet gets to the pole it then takes a sharp turn southward over the Great Lakes pulling down cold air with it, causing the "Polar Vortexes" being experienced in the Northeast.
There are also other warning signs such as the glaciers in Greenland continuing to melt and recede over the course of several years. This has been releasing large quantities of cold fresh water into the ocean which affects the path of the Gulf Stream that usually tempers the climate along the coast as well as across the ocean in the UK and Northern Europe. I just read yesterday that in Antarctica, one of the large ice shelves there (not the "Ross") is on the verge of cracking and as with the glaciers in Greenland, is releasing fresh water into the ocean.
Last summer was the first time since I moved here almost twenty seven years ago, that I saw the summit of Mt Hood (≈14,000') with no snow on it.
Out here, I'm already seeing daffodils blooming with Tulips not far behind, and this is only the second week of February. We tied or broke several all time daily high temperature records over the last couple days.
Crikey TroutFace and Annie are experiencing weather we usually don't see where I live until mid-late June (OK, maybe mid May these days) here. It was 88° there today.
is hard to take global warming seriously in negative cold.
I do hope you're not being serious. If so, I'm sure there will be some beach property you can buy for a song in a couple decades (or less) just make sure you have a boat too.
special weather statement - is a danger of heating pipes freezing. dont want that to happen >.<
...DANGEROUSLY COLD AIR THIS WEEKEND...
BITTERLY COLD TEMPERATURES WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA THIS WEEKEND.
* TEMPERATURES SATURDAY NIGHT INTO EARLY SUNDAY MORNING WILL FALL
TO AROUND ZERO IN AND AROUND THE NEW YORK CITY AND NEW JERSEY
METRO...LONG ISLAND...AND COASTAL CONNECTICUT. TEMPS WILL FALL
TO 5 TO 10 BELOW ACROSS INTERIOR PORTIONS OF NORTHEAST NEW
JERSEY...THE LOWER HUDSON VALLEY...AND SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT.
WIND CHILL VALUES DURING THIS TIME COULD REACH LIFE THREATENING
LEVELS AS COLD AS 20 TO 30 BELOW ZERO.
* HIGH TEMPERATURES ON SUNDAY WILL ONLY BE IN THE TEENS.
* COLD SPELLS OF THIS MAGNITUDE BRING A RISK OF FROSTBITE AND
HYPOTHERMIA FOR ANYONE WHO DOES NOT TAKE PROPER PRECAUTIONS. IN
ADDITION...FROZEN PIPES AND OVERWORKED FURNACES COULD LEAVE YOUR
HOUSE WITHOUT HEAT OR RUNNING WATER...AND CAR BATTERIES RUN THE
RISK OF DYING.
* NEVER VENTURE OUTDOORS WITHOUT WEARING GLOVES...A HAT AND
SEVERAL LAYERS OF CLOTHING. WIND CHILL VALUES LATE SATURDAY
NIGHT INTO SUNDAY MORNING COULD LEAD TO FROSTBITE IN LESS THAN
30 MINUTES IF PROPER PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN.
* RUN WATER AT A TRICKLE AND KEEP CABINET DOORS OPEN TO PREVENT
PIPES FROM FREEZING.
* NEVER USE A STOVE OR OVEN TO HEAT YOUR HOME OR USE AN OPEN FLAME
TO MELT FROZEN PIPES. MANY HOUSE FIRES RESULT FROM THESE
PRACTICES.
* CHECK TIRE PRESSURE AND YOUR CAR BATTERY. BE SURE YOUR CAR HAS
A WINTER SAFETY KIT THAT INCLUDES A BLANKET...WARM CLOTHES AND
GLOVES IN CASE YOUR CAR BREAKS DOWN OR BECOMES STRANDED.
* TAKE EXTRA STEPS TO KEEP YOUR PETS WARM AND KNOW THEIR LIMITS TO
COLD.
...especially if you are living in Florida or a few miles inland along the gulf coast.
Hmmm...South Beach, the new Venice?
Anybody familiar with driving down the Florida coasts along Interstate 95 (on the east) or I-75 (on the west) has seen the garbage mountains, i.e. "landfills" that have over-filled excessively! I propose that they stop putting the garbage in big piles on land and instead pile it all into the ocean to begin creating a garbage dike around Florida and then pump the water out. Why does the movie "Wall-e" come to mind?
PS: this morning my porch thermometer reads 10F at 7:00 AM and my neighbor's car is stuck in the driveway we share so I can't go out for breakfast, which is my habit on Fridays.
Comments
Yup, I think it's made of sassafras root... Well, originally... God knows what it's made of now... Sassafras is supposedly one of Long Island's valuable resources back in colonial times... That and pitch pine... Those crappy gnarly pines that grow abundantly on the south shore. And yeah that is the same tractor... It shall remain battery less until spring.
The forum is really, really wonky now... Screwed up this post
Naa, more like Kylo Ren... That's my daughter's light saber... And my paintball mask... I should have switched the light saber to sith mode, then I could have been Darth Vicore... (former username was Lord Vicore)...
...so does the wood smell like Root Beer when burned?
Naa, it's a little bit fragrant, sometimes it's strong, mostly barely noticeable... It's the roots and leaves that really smell the most (sasparilla/root beer)... The roots and leaves have a bunch of medicinal purposes... The wood dries out quickly and is great for kindling... It might even burn a little quicker, I think it has an oil or something in it...?
...yeah, you can really taste the difference between the large corporate made root beers (which use a bunch of artificial flavorings) and those still brewed with sassafras. Though more expensive, I choose the latter.
darth vicore vs voldemoort
jedi powers vs wizardry
He does have the ability to confuse and bewilder.
flakey stuff falling from sky. yesterday forecast was saying one inch. >.<
Lovely winter scenery you've got there, McGyver. Wouldn't want to have to shovel all that snow but gosh, it looks so pretty. Weatherman is saying we're going to get hit with anywhere from 20 to 50 centimeters of the stuff, starting tonight. Main blizzard hits tomorrow, right now it's getting a little windy and very cold, got a -15 windchill -- that's only around 5 Farenheit -- but not so bad to keep from making a supply run. I'm hoping we don't lose power, they had problems at our falling-apart hydro station all last week and we were on alert to conserve so as to avoid rotating blackouts like happened the winter before last.
In any case, I'm holing up in my nest until it's all over. Can't wait for Spring to get here ... even if our spring starts somewhere around the middle of June, lasts maybe all of three weeks and frequently gets mistaken for Summer.
you in the upper lattitudes?
Newfoundland. We have our own time zone and our weather is insane.
Newfoundland, isn't that where those lovely black dogs come from, the ones that can be trained to wander around with little barrels of Whisky or Brandy to warm people up in the cold weather.
newfies?
The ones with the whiskey are brown & white St. Bernards but I'm sure our famous black Newfoundland dogs could be trained to carry a similar barrel. Would likely have Screech in it, though, that's our traditional strong drink. Very strong swimmers, those dogs, with their water resistant coats and webbed feet, many a sailor or fisherman in trouble has been rescued by a Newfoundland. We also used to use them for pulling sleds in the winter and carts of wood in summer. Now they're mostly show dogs and pets, though a few still work. You need lots of room for a dog like that, with plenty of access to the outdoors and the sea because they just love the water.
Yes I had a friend who had 2 she used to show. Their tails are great for clearing the contents off a coffee table when they are happy. She used to drive around with a sticker in her car window which said "NO we are not black St Bernards"
Lol! If you are going to have even 1 Newfoundland, you need a big house and keep all your breakables high up/off the furniture. Also better invest in lots of mops to wipe up all the drool because when they're even slightly hot they produce gallons of it. We had quite a cleanup the summer two of our neighbour's (who has since moved to the US) got loose and paid us a visit. They were young pups about the size of small bears -- and yes, they have been mistaken for black bears by inexperienced hikers (probably Mainland tourists) who've sometimes encountered them in the woods. Lovely animals in spite of the mess and I'd be in doggy heaven (odd place since I'm a cat person but there you go!) if I had one of my own but alas I haven't the means. Even though I live in a rural area that's practically their natural habitat, their upkeep is beyond me at the present.
eeeks the cold is coming. 6F with windchill -15F
still snowing out, kewl cuz can see the wind gusts, makes snow swirlie devils.
more snow tomorrow.
no wanna lose work days got my eye on the prize i7 16gb
...meanwhile out here in Oregon we are going to be in the 60s through midweek.
Send some of that warm weather our way, willya? Weatherman is on TV now with details on the "Blizzard of the Week", looks like my area will get anywhere from 25-35 cm. (10-13 inches) of snow with very high winds before it turns into freezing rain and ice pellets Tuesday night. Which same big mess is exactly the right combination for all sorts of accidents and power failures.
Oh, and Hydro just had to announce they've applied for yet another rate increase due to having low reserves of water and needing to use that falling-down station in Holyrood even more now to make up for the shortage. Not happy times this winter down on "Da Rock", nosirree!
cold cold coooold snap
they now predicting with windchill -21F
it's even colder in celsius
the Florida manatees are feeling the nip
so you can OC that i7 without internal cooling, just crank it up to 8GHz and open a window.
16F outside my door this morning at 10:00 AM.
Morning TV said the temperature in Buffalo (50miles North of here) was 13F at 7:30 AM. They're predicting -1F tomorrow. Cold but not nearly as cold as previous years. For me it's been actually quite a gentle winter. Warm-warm-warm-snow-cold-warm-melt-snow-cold-warm-melt-snow-cold-...
...that's brutal, and the reason Why I left North Central Wisconsin for the wet but usually milder climate of the Northwest.
Yeah our brief February Spring is over for now and it's back to water falling from the sky (thankfully not in frozen form). City radar map is entirely green with a few yellow blobs (heavier rain). Still rather mild though, considering.
Going to be -13° (-29° "real feel") in my old hometown of Steven's Point Friday night/Caturday morning.
is hard to take global warming seriously in negative cold.
....climate is a very delicate balance and when that balance is disturbed (as it has been since the Industrial Revolution), that is when weather patterns become extreme as it attempts to compensate for the anomaly.
This is why we here in the Northwest have been experiencing a persistent El Niño that has actually created a pool of warm water in the Gulf of Alaska for the last couple years. This has resulted un uncharacteristically warm and dry conditions in an area renowned for usually being rainy and cool most of the year. It has also affected both ocean currents and the jet stream, pushing the jet northward far out in the Pacific. When the jet gets to the pole it then takes a sharp turn southward over the Great Lakes pulling down cold air with it, causing the "Polar Vortexes" being experienced in the Northeast.
There are also other warning signs such as the glaciers in Greenland continuing to melt and recede over the course of several years. This has been releasing large quantities of cold fresh water into the ocean which affects the path of the Gulf Stream that usually tempers the climate along the coast as well as across the ocean in the UK and Northern Europe. I just read yesterday that in Antarctica, one of the large ice shelves there (not the "Ross") is on the verge of cracking and as with the glaciers in Greenland, is releasing fresh water into the ocean.
Last summer was the first time since I moved here almost twenty seven years ago, that I saw the summit of Mt Hood (≈14,000') with no snow on it.
Out here, I'm already seeing daffodils blooming with Tulips not far behind, and this is only the second week of February. We tied or broke several all time daily high temperature records over the last couple days.
Crikey TroutFace and Annie are experiencing weather we usually don't see where I live until mid-late June (OK, maybe mid May these days) here. It was 88° there today.
BTW, I Like the Squirrel GIF in your sig.
I do hope you're not being serious. If so, I'm sure there will be some beach property you can buy for a song in a couple decades (or less) just make sure you have a boat too.
...especially if you are living in Florida or a few miles inland along the gulf coast.
Hmmm...South Beach, the new Venice?
yikes 7F outside and getting colder.
special weather statement - is a danger of heating pipes freezing. dont want that to happen >.<
...DANGEROUSLY COLD AIR THIS WEEKEND...
BITTERLY COLD TEMPERATURES WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA THIS WEEKEND.
* TEMPERATURES SATURDAY NIGHT INTO EARLY SUNDAY MORNING WILL FALL
TO AROUND ZERO IN AND AROUND THE NEW YORK CITY AND NEW JERSEY
METRO...LONG ISLAND...AND COASTAL CONNECTICUT. TEMPS WILL FALL
TO 5 TO 10 BELOW ACROSS INTERIOR PORTIONS OF NORTHEAST NEW
JERSEY...THE LOWER HUDSON VALLEY...AND SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT.
WIND CHILL VALUES DURING THIS TIME COULD REACH LIFE THREATENING
LEVELS AS COLD AS 20 TO 30 BELOW ZERO.
* HIGH TEMPERATURES ON SUNDAY WILL ONLY BE IN THE TEENS.
* COLD SPELLS OF THIS MAGNITUDE BRING A RISK OF FROSTBITE AND
HYPOTHERMIA FOR ANYONE WHO DOES NOT TAKE PROPER PRECAUTIONS. IN
ADDITION...FROZEN PIPES AND OVERWORKED FURNACES COULD LEAVE YOUR
HOUSE WITHOUT HEAT OR RUNNING WATER...AND CAR BATTERIES RUN THE
RISK OF DYING.
* NEVER VENTURE OUTDOORS WITHOUT WEARING GLOVES...A HAT AND
SEVERAL LAYERS OF CLOTHING. WIND CHILL VALUES LATE SATURDAY
NIGHT INTO SUNDAY MORNING COULD LEAD TO FROSTBITE IN LESS THAN
30 MINUTES IF PROPER PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN.
* RUN WATER AT A TRICKLE AND KEEP CABINET DOORS OPEN TO PREVENT
PIPES FROM FREEZING.
* NEVER USE A STOVE OR OVEN TO HEAT YOUR HOME OR USE AN OPEN FLAME
TO MELT FROZEN PIPES. MANY HOUSE FIRES RESULT FROM THESE
PRACTICES.
* CHECK TIRE PRESSURE AND YOUR CAR BATTERY. BE SURE YOUR CAR HAS
A WINTER SAFETY KIT THAT INCLUDES A BLANKET...WARM CLOTHES AND
GLOVES IN CASE YOUR CAR BREAKS DOWN OR BECOMES STRANDED.
* TAKE EXTRA STEPS TO KEEP YOUR PETS WARM AND KNOW THEIR LIMITS TO
COLD.
Anybody familiar with driving down the Florida coasts along Interstate 95 (on the east) or I-75 (on the west) has seen the garbage mountains, i.e. "landfills" that have over-filled excessively! I propose that they stop putting the garbage in big piles on land and instead pile it all into the ocean to begin creating a garbage dike around Florida and then pump the water out. Why does the movie "Wall-e" come to mind?
PS: this morning my porch thermometer reads 10F at 7:00 AM and my neighbor's car is stuck in the driveway we share so I can't go out for breakfast, which is my habit on Fridays.