Trailhead at Donker Farm now marked!

You can find the trailhead at Donker Farm now, as the sign is up!

Melting

It is a melting world out there today! After about 20 inches of snow over the weekend, we're back down to patches with clear spots now. The trails are now a combination of mud and packed ice, so be careful out there.

At nine am, it is 40.5 degrees and steady.
The humidity is 98%; there is no rain falling currently.
The barometer is 29.23 inches of mercury and steady under overcast skies.
The brook is running, as you might imagine; we're measuring 4 4/10 inches down by the Olean Street bridge.The Cascades, however, still remain snow covered; it's all running under the snow.

Yesterday, we got some work done out on the Meadow Ridge Trail, to clarify the trail route as it crosses Silver Spring Road and heads into the relocation. It looks as though there's been plenty of traffic on the trails. Enjoy the warm-ish weather!

The snow has ended

The clean up is starting.

The end of the Cascades Trail at Olean.

Cascading Waters sign on Olean Street

Yes, the fire danger DOES remain NONE.

Here's the same shot from yesterday from Olean up the Cascades Brook to the Lodge. Now with snowpiles of about three feet at the street.

Cooks' Pond at Cascades Brook

And the trail from Olean to Cataract is broken. After that, you're on your own! We have not YET gotten the parking area open, but we are working on it! If you're within walking distance, come by. We will post as soon as the parking area is open.

Feels like fall

While it isn't as chilly as it has been the past few mornings, it does feel like fall out there today!
At 8 am, it is 50 degrees and rising.
The barometer is at 29.47 inches of mercury and steady under clear blue skies.
The brook is again dry.

It is sign and timber work Thursday here at the Lodge; if you have some time this morning, come by any time after 9 to help with log hewing. If you saw us at stART, you know that we have a whole sign frame read to go for Pine Glen in West Boylston; we just need to finish the sign for that. The frame we're working on next will at the end of Dawson Road to mark the KinneyWoods property.

See you tomorrow at stART!

The logs are loaded and we're ready to go! The annual arts-and-everything-else festival, stART on the Street is tomorrow on Park Avenue from 11-6. Look for us in our usual spot under the trees at the edge of Newton Hill (across from the corner of Elm and Park).
We'll have the bowsaws, adze, bark spud, and mallet and chisel ready for willing hands. Stop by and help us finish up the next property sign!
See you tomorrow!

Baby hawks

We awoke this morning to the cries of hungry baby hawks, who apparently still have not been sufficiently fed, as we are still hearing from them. As best as we can tell, they are nesting by the brook (surprisingly close to the house), and their somewhat harried looking parent went so far as to perch for a time in the shagbark hickory not far from our back door in the search for food. The shrieks really sound like something in distress!
At 8 am, it is 72 degrees and steady
The barometer is at 29.23 inches and steady under clear, sunny skies.
The fire danger is rising to MODERATE today.
The brook continues to be dry.

At 8:30, we'll have sign and timber work happening here at the Lodge. Stop by if you have some time and want to do some work with adz and bow saw!

Warm and dry

We're into week two without rain here, so the stream is drying up. It's still much cooler under the trees than it is elsewhere in the city, though. At ten am, it is just now getting to 75 degrees and steady.
We've got a bit of a breeze here, as well.
The barometer is at 29.47 inches of mercury and steady under clear blue skies.

We had a large group of people here yesterday for the every-other-Thursday work project, including a group from the Worcester Public Schools. Much sign routing, painting, staining, and log shaping going on well into the afternoon. You'll be seeing the fruits of that labor going up at various properties as we head into the fall!

The logging work at Cascades West is now completed (and if you didn't see the T&G report on this, check it out), and the new route of the Meadow Ridge trail is open for hiking. We've gotten some good reports on it already! We'll be watching the newly cleared space this summer as it starts to come back with grasses and bushes, much better and more mixed habitat for all that lives here.

Still rising

We've raised the fire danger sign again this morning to VERY HIGH. This is very,  very unusual for central Massachusetts, let alone for March.
At 8:45, it is 59 degrees and rising. 87% humidity and steady.
The barometer is at 29.41 inches of mercury and steady.

I should also note that we are lucky enough to have some excellent sign work going on this week, thanks to intern Jacob!

BEAUTIFUL!

Well, folks, if you were waiting for spring, you've got it!
We are expecting that it will be in the mid-sixties by noon today, so get out there and enjoy it!
Should you be coming through here, do know that several days of melting means that trails are extremely muddy. In the places where the line between trail and brook is somewhat foggy (Silver Spring comes to mind), expect water. So long as you're prepared for that, great weather for it!
We also are lucky enough to have a spring break crew here from Clark for a second day, doing some timber shaping. This is in addition to our stalwart "every other Thursday morning" volunteers, who are routing some signs.
At 10:45 am it is 58.8 degrees and rising.
The humidity is 60% and falling.
The barometer stands at 29.35 inches of mercury and steady.
We currently have about 9 mph of wind
Enjoy!

Cascades West sign

Colin, Tyler, and William braved the cold and got the new sign up. Look for it at the property bound with Boyton Park on Silver Spring Road!

Sign going up today!

You know you have intrepid volunteers when people show up even when it's 17 degrees! The sign at Cascades West has been brought up the hill and will be going up today.
It is COLD: at 9:30, it is just breaking 20. With the wind, which we're getting about 7 mph of right now, it feels like zero.
Bright and sunny, however.
The Cascades, after the rain earlier this week, continue to run through the ice. If you've never seen them like this, come by! It's really quite lovely.
The fire danger remains NONE (though it is low to the east of us).
If you bundle up and account for the wind, nice day for a hike! The mud that's been plaguing us has frozen!

Wind Advisory!

The National Weather Service wants you to know that there is a wind advisory today.
Winds may gust up to 46 mph.
Ordinarily that isn't too too bad,
but recently we had an ice storm and there are still limbs hanging here and there, so if you head into the woods be extra aware of your surroundings please.

Yesterday the GWLT volunteer crew and a kindly dog walker who loves to dig holes headed up into Cascades West.
After digging down to the bedrock (and that wasn't very far down at all) we stood up the massive timber frame property sign holder, and set it in place.
The property sign is completed and should be following along shortly.

Another sign complete

The outside frame for another sign was completed today!

This one will be going up on Olean Street on the Cascading Waters property.

Clark University is Here!

We have some Clark University students here this morning, doing some trail and sign work on the Cascades parkland. We're getting some new posts worked on, replacing some repainted signs, and putting up some new ones. Thanks to Clark University for their great volunteers!
It is a LOVELY day to be out and about; get outside!
At noon, it is 56.8 degrees and still rising.
35% humidity and steady
The barometer is at 29.47 inches of mercury and steady under blue, sunny skies.

If you do get out on the trails this weekend, we would always appreciate a report of anything you find!

(Apologies, as an earlier post misidentified the volunteers on account of the bright purple t-shirts they wore.)

Sign and Timber Work Thursday

It is time again for Sign and Timber Work at Cascading Waters! (135 Olean Street)

Plenty of logs to hew!  Come try the adz and see how GWLT signs are made!

Join us for a bit or stay the whole time.

This Thursday, October 21st from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Hope to see you there!

Work project day!

To all of you who wielded a bark spud on Sunday, now all those logs need shaping! If anyone is free this morning and would really like another whack at the adz(e), come on by! We'll be working on logs all morning.

At 9 am, it is just hitting 60 degrees
A bit overcast and cloudy
The barometer is at 29.44 inches of mercury

We got a report from a neighbor that two foxes had cornered an opossum earlier this week in his backyard. He didn't stick around to see how that worked out, but we're guessing not in the opossum's favor.

Nice one

We hope all of you who were using the bark spud and the adz aren't feeling it too much today. We wrangled the logs (a bit lighter!) back here to the Lodge last night (thanks, Roger! We couldn't do it without you!), and they're awaiting some more adz work before we set to with mallet and chisel. Thanks for the help!

This morning it's 58 degrees and rising at 9 am.
Sunny blues skies
29.18 inches of mercury and steady
The brook is dry
The fire danger remains LOW

Volunteer Thursday!

Every other Thursday morning this summer, we're doing sign work with volunteers here at the Lodge. If you can wield a paintbrush, an adz, a hand saw, we'll find something for you to do. Work goes on here until 11:30 today.
(to the accompanyment of the woodchipper next door...'though I am freshly assured that this will end by noon today!)

At 9:30 it is 71.1 degrees and rising...quite pleasant.
42% humidity and falling
29.18 inches of mercury and steady
We have 1 mph of wind
The streambed is just a trickle (and likely to stay that way, unless the isolated showers for tonight pan out).
Fire danger is LOW ('though it's MODERATE just to our west).

Damp

The 0.4 inches of rain that we got last night all fell after midnight, so it's on today's count. Expect it to be damp on the trails; we're still hearing the drip of water off the trees now.
It's 76.1 degrees and rising at 10 am.
51% humidity and steady
29.21 inches of mercury and steady
O mph of wind
And the rain wasn't enough to bring the stream up above a trickle.

In addition to some family health excitement, the lack of posting has possibly been because it's been hard to hear yourself think here at the Lodge lately. The development next door has made it up the property bound to the house now, and the boundary runs without many trees as a buffer up here. They have cleared right up to the boundline, with chainsaw and excavator and chipper, and it's been loud, to say the least. We also have an impressive pile of woodchips along the boundline, and an unprecedented amount of sun in the backyard.

You can join us for sign work here between 8:30 and 11:30 Thursday morning!

Rainy and gusty (CORRECTED)

Every so often a small front goes through and the wind kicks up dramatically. There's a line of rain squalls coming through today. It doesn't look like anything serious, but it's raising the humidity, and if you're out on a hike, there's a good chance that you'll get damp!

The sign work continues, as Will has a post entirely squared off as of today!

At 9 am, it is 56.5 degrees and rising.
55% humidity and falling (at 9, it was not raining; at 2 pm, it's back up to 83%)
30.30 inches of mercury and steady
The stream stands at 4.8 inches
Fire danger is MODERATE