November's Brown

It is early November. A huge typhoon slammed into the Philippines yesterday, the biggest hurricane in recorded history. Last week there were snowstorms in the middle of the U.S. Weather has been somewhat tame here in NH lately, though yesterday we did have a few snow showers (nothing that stuck).
The water level is high from the beaver damming and the new home the beavers have built is quite sizable. They have also been actively cutting down some tall and sturdy trees. We have started to wrap some of the trees by the front road to prevent gnawing.
Yesterday the wood ducks flew off from Beatitude Pond when I went down to look and see why there were ripples on the surface of the water. First the females flew away, closely followed by the males.
Plants are now various shades of yellow and brown and have gone to seed.
I have planted all the garlic, hoping for a good crop come spring.

Rest well, sweet Earth.

Into Fall

I did not post at all last month. Month was busy and flew by. Now it's October and the leaves by the pond that turned red early in the chill of the night have shed many of their leaves, the bright orange and yellows remain. The growing beaver colony has been very active preparing for the winter, with even the little ones getting a gnaw in. They have built a third shelter by the lower pond about 10 feet from the crossing. One day Lindley and I heard the scratching noise of one of the beavers hollowing out the inside of the new den. What will they do with the two previous ones?

Wood ducks still visit every morning and fly off in with loud shrieking sounds if we so much as put one footfall below the halfway point of the driveway.
I saw a shiny black salamander under a log I had pulled up to inspect. I had never seen one like that better.
We had over a week of warmish dry days, but now the bitter chill of fall has settled in so walking around outside is not quite as pleasant.
Floods continue in different parts of the country, but we have been spared here in the NE. Less active hurricane season.
Snow in the Midwest already.

August has been more fall like than summer like for the most part with some hot and humid days scattered between, but nothing like July and not nearly as wet. Days are warm and dry and nights cool and crisp. Vegetables are finally growing properly and we hope we will have a harvest from all varieties of plants by the time all is said and done.
One things I noticed is that hydrangea everywhere is much lusher than normal...just coincidence or due to climate change, I do not know. The blossoms are over sized. We have also had a good crop of fruits this year, especially blueberries and blackberries and the bears have been eating well. Lindley has seen a mother bear with cubs twice. The beavers also have a brood and the little ones are finally big enough to come out of the lodge and eat on their own. They are so tiny, but they are feisty and already know how to use their tails to slap warnings when scared.
It seems like just yesterday that we were saying goodbye to the colder weather and winter...now we must start gathering wood again for the winter months ahead!
In the meantime many parts of the country have either been suffering from extreme rain events and flash flooding or wildfires, but still not too much attention paid to climate change information in the mainstream news.

Into August

I only posted once in July. We had some very hot days in July after much rain then the temperatures began to moderate as did some of the rains. The beaver tries to stuff up the new culvert every evening, but so far no overflows. We did have  a sink hole that developed in the wetlands crossing and Lindley fixed that up and I finished it up.
August is now being August with black and blueberries ripening, black eyed Susans dotting the landscape...sounds merging into cricket sounds from the trilling of the tree frogs. Fish are getting bigger and animals that like to feed on the fish are coming more frequently to the ponds.
Lindley found bear scat in the back. They are also feeding up while their is plenty.
Lots of Japanese beetles this year.
Other wild life sightings recently:
scarlet tanagers
cedar waxwings
Northern strike
pine warblers
kingfishers
swallows
chipping sparrows
pickerel frog
worm snake (front garden)
lots of dragonflies

Flashflood puts our town on the map

For several days up until July 3, we had record amounts of rain in the Western part of Nh and several towns, including ours, were declared disaster areas due to the flood damage.
Water from the beaver pond started to run across the driveway during the wee hours of July 3rd and we awoke to two streams, one larger than the other, going across the lower driveway from the beaver pond into Beatitude Pond. In an hour it had widened and deepened so we were unable to cross. We were stranded for the day.
Towards the end of the day our plowman, also a  town road road crew person, came to assess the situation.
Today it has a fix for now, but not sure how it will hold up in the the next extreme weather event.
I noticed the beaver had tried to dam the new river last night before it was fixed.
Today there is a new culvert and new sand and gravel. Meantime much sand has been washed into Beatitude Pond...not great for the wildlife!  Hoping to find better solutions for flood mitigation and the funding for it.
Wildlife sightings: Lindley saw a turkey with 14 littles ones on the front lawn today.
Another turtle wandering on the driveway, but this time up by the house! We canoed out back and enjoyed watching and listening to the birds while Lindley fished.

Here is a photo of the river that formed across our driveway before repairs...about 3 feet deep.

"I can see clearly now the rain is gone..."

Wow! I thought we had a lot of rain earlier in the month, but yesterday took the cake. I was working from home and one minute it would lighten up and be peaceful and the very next the skies would darken and dump tropical rains on flora and fauna...so thick I could not see beyond the front lawn.
I was concerned about the ponds over topping the culverts. This would under mind our crossing and potentially cause serious problems.

The beginning of the week temperatures had soared in the mid 90's, leaving us all feeling faint and irritable when in non-air conditioned places. Here at Beatitude Pond we rely on Mother Nature to cool us down. Fire flies have been illuminating the nights, rain or shine. Meanwhile states in the West continue to experience record high temperatures. Everyone there is suffering.

Recent wildlife sightings:

Another turtle (painted turtle) attempting to lay eggs in a nest she dug on the crossing....she dug several holes.
A hawk drying her feathers off after a rainstorm high up in a tree.
A bullfrog, awaiting prey, perfectly still on a log, except for its breathing (on close inspection).
A wood duck.
Blue admiral butterflies taking their turns eating salt on the driveway.

June Monsoons

The first part of June we had quite a bit of rain...not warm rain, but cold rain, which didn't do much for some of the vegetables we are trying to grow (like squash, pumpkins and cucumbers). Carrots, lettuce, peas and onions are doing pretty well, though.

The Western states have been in drought.

Wild life continues to abound by the ponds:

today...spotted a mangy looking coyote on the path down to the waterfall...Lindley saw him
last week Lindley say a snapping turtle covering her nest on the crossing. We are keeping an eye on her nest.
I saw the mallard duck with three offspring walking across the crossing. We have since seen her swimming with them on the lower and beaver ponds.
We saw Northern Strikes trying to mate.

• Lots of ant hills everywhere - lawn and driveway.
• Swallows
• Cedar waxwings
• A lone turkey hen wandering in the front yard for a couple of days.
• A big garter snake moving slowly across the driveway in the sun.
• The beaver crawling up a  large boulder by the driveway (an amusing sight)

Now it's the first day of summer and feeling quite summer like. It's been dry now for the last few days. Squash finally beginning to perk up.