Pleasant Day

Were it not for the hydraulic forwarder clanking noisily in its endless task to move every rock back and forth next door on Olean Circle, I would say that it is a very pleasant morning. Certainly as you move just a smidge west on the trail from Olean Street, above the aforementioned racket, it gets much more so!

8:26 a.m. Conditions at the Lodge:

Temperature is 68.2 degrees F and rising;
Humidity is 92% and steady (which seems a bit high, so we will recheck that instrument);
Barometric pressure is 29.18" of Hg and steady;
No recorded precipitation;
No recorded wind;
Haze, yet no clouds;
The Brook is dry and there is no reading there;
The USFS Fire Danger Class remains, as ever, LOW.

Enjoy this wonderful summer day! Get yourself outside!

The Rains of Yesterday

Yesterday's long stretch of rains have taken a dry brook bed up to 3.36" of flow with both channels running.

The strong rains continue to keep the Fire Danger suppressed at LOW, where it has been pegged for weeks now.

The line of White pine, Red cedar, and White cedar that were planted on the south bound line by an awesome volunteer two weeks ago seem to have taken to their new home.

These trees bear a little reflection.

The construction site to our south has been very active with earth moving, rock moving, clanking of metal construction equipment, blowing dust, and the cutting of trees. It is easier by far than the summers of constant jack hammering of the hydro-axe on the bedrock, so things are improving. But the cutting of the trees was hard.

We looked out over the open site and had determined to plant new trees on our side of the line in the spots we hadn't yet gotten to. But we assumed the site had been as cleared as it could be. We were wrong.

On the day we went out to plant they were moving the mountain of hammered rock into one long dike along the bound line. While a little odd at first I came to like the addition. If they leave it as is there is no chance for future encroachment, the rocks will provide shelter for snakes, chipmunks, rabbits, groundhogs, skunks, etc. and it is so long and so high that they probably all could live there together. That is when the chainsaw started.

While they had cut the site open back towards the line, they had apparently not cut every tree down on their side of the line, and everything would yield to the new rock dike. In one brief moment the reason for planting was made as forcefully as possible. If there would be any wild life left, it would be on the Cascading Waters side of the line. The volunteer was convicted and planted more and faster than I could have imagined, at times only feet from the clanging construction machines.

And so it is.

The new trees are bathed in sunlight, ready to take their place as habitat, as screening, as windrow, as the future generation of forest filling in the forest floor previously canopied by trees now gone.

Temperature is 70.0°F and steady;
Humidity is 80% and steady;
Pressure is 29.18" of Hg and steady;
Skies are blue;
Winds up to 12 mph;
Brook flowing at 3.36";
Fire Danger is LOW;
Yesterday saw much rain!

A beautiful day out there!