Northern weather

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Cool and rainy today so I went up to the garden and picked tomatoes, peppers (bell and ancho), some cucumbers......and pulled a few carrots to see how they were progressing (not bad)

Came back to the house and decided to spread the mulch that never got done stored around back. Got to teh last bag under the forsythis and some whizzed by my ear hard and and I knew to

RUN!!!!

and felt something on my forearm, brushed it off, but just a shade too late -----Yup! Found another yellow jacket nest...............

[MurphOnMillerAve]

...
RUN!!!!….and felt something on my forearm, brushed it off, but just a shade too late -----Yup! Found another yellow jacket nest...............

I'm glad it wasn't a bear.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

...
RUN!!!!….and felt something on my forearm, brushed it off, but just a shade too late -----Yup! Found another yellow jacket nest...............

I'm glad it wasn't a bear.

Would have been a very small bear to be under the forsythia......

[robert.]

I’M battling an army of ants. A few days ago I saw some walking across the stoop. So I followed them. They were making a new nest under a rock. When I moved it . I could hear them scurrying around must have been a million of them(not really but enough to hear them). Damn things climbed all over me.. I don’t know if the bit me or stuck me with their legs.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I’M battling an army of ants. A few days ago I saw some walking across the stoop. So I followed them. They were making a new nest under a rock. When I moved it . I could hear them scurrying around must have been a million of them(not really but enough to hear them). Damn things climbed all over me.. I don’t know if the bit me or stuck me with their legs.

Ants generally "sting" with a bite that involves formic acid. Get enough of them around and you can actually smell it.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I’M battling an army of ants. A few days ago I saw some walking across the stoop. So I followed them. They were making a new nest under a rock. When I moved it . I could hear them scurrying around must have been a million of them(not really but enough to hear them). Damn things climbed all over me.. I don’t know if the bit me or stuck me with their legs.

A long time ago, I heard that sprinkling Baking Soda at and around the hole to their nest makes them scratch themselves to death.

[healey36]

Pouring buckets here. Never ceases to amaze me how jammed up my gutters get in a driving rain storm. I need to get all of the trees cut back away from the house. In the meantime I'm headed out to clear them...ugh.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Pouring buckets here. Never ceases to amaze me how jammed up my gutters get in a driving rain storm. I need to get all of the trees cut back away from the house. In the meantime I'm headed out to clear them...ugh.

Cutting trees away from the house seemed a necessity to us. Tree removal of those very close to the house has been an ongoing project for some time now for us, especially since the last snowstorm ripped several out by the roots and even threatened the house with the tallest three trunks towering over the house and creaking and cracking. Here is the last of them having been removed and stump-ground away.

[robert.]

Smart move Murph. It's really windy here. I went out and staked up my sunflowers. Is the guy controlling his stump grinder with a cellphone?

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Smart move Murph. It's really windy here. I went out and staked up my sunflowers. Is the guy controlling his stump grinder with a cellphone?

It was a handheld device, but I did not observe that it was a cellphone. He never sat on the machine, which was one hellofa brute. He only escorted it on and off its trailer and throughout our yard, it seemed robotic and not there to play. It sure made thorough-work of the huge stump, which was, perhaps, 36-40" diameter, across its flat top, not including any spread-out of the thick roots as they reached out from it.

What a relief it was not having the 3-trunk White Birch towering over the house any further . As I reasoned about it, it certainly wasn't going to stop growing upward nor stop growing. So bye-bye it went, in two efforts . I love trees but do not miss its threat to our house.

[healey36]

Nearly six inches of rain yesterday...the fact that Ellicott City didn't flood again must speak to how dry it had gotten around here. The rest of the week looks like a washout...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Nearly six inches of rain yesterday...the fact that Ellicott City didn't flood again must speak to how dry it had gotten around here. The rest of the week looks like a washout...

Big flower pot out on the deck had a poplar leave in the bottom - easy 6" in that pot.

[Wolf]

You must have been hogging all the rain, Healey, my rain gauge only showed 3.2 or 3.3 inches when I emptied it at 11 PM.
BWI Airport also got more than we did--4.79 inches up to 1:54 AM reading this morning. Good thing we missed out on the rain,
they held a ceremony re-opening Main Street yesterday, and just as they got done with the speeches, etc., it started to rain!

[healey36]

You must have been hogging all the rain, Healey, my rain gauge only showed 3.2 or 3.3 inches when I emptied it at 11 PM.
BWI Airport also got more than we did--4.79 inches up to 1:54 AM reading this morning. Good thing we missed out on the rain,
they held a ceremony re-opening Main Street yesterday, and just as they got done with the speeches, etc., it started to rain!

Another inch today, mate. I'm presuming you're talking about EC when you mention the re-opening ceremony...have they sorted out what's causing the massive run-off issue? I'm wondering how many folks are going to reopen down there...I suspect it's going to be increasingly difficult to get insurance going forward (presuming you can still get it).

[Rufus T. Firefly]

You must have been hogging all the rain, Healey, my rain gauge only showed 3.2 or 3.3 inches when I emptied it at 11 PM.
BWI Airport also got more than we did--4.79 inches up to 1:54 AM reading this morning. Good thing we missed out on the rain,
they held a ceremony re-opening Main Street yesterday, and just as they got done with the speeches, etc., it started to rain!

Another inch today, mate. I'm presuming you're talking about EC when you mention the re-opening ceremony...have they sorted out what's causing the massive run-off issue? I'm wondering how many folks are going to reopen down there...I suspect it's going to be increasingly difficult to get insurance going forward (presuming you can still get it).

Still raining - looks nice outside, but when you go out it's like a mist or fine drizzle.....and there's still a pond in the back yard.

And, someone was out mowing......in the rain. Hallmark of suburbia - must take care of lawn!