Waterfall Returns.

 7-26-21 VERMONT: Blanca is fitting right in. She is now invisible fence trained and is allowed out on her own and with the other dogs. The intra-dog pack dynamics are still in flux. She and Bally and I were out in the pasture this morning, and they were jumping around and playing.

All the rain, we had another 0.8 inches, has raised the level of the new pond to the top of the waterfall. The springs I exposed are still flowing and the waterfall is splashing away. 

When the new water reached the old pond, flowing down the brook between the ponds, it started a migration of crayfish from the older pond up the brook and up the waterfall and into the new pond. There were one or two per minute for more than an hour. They climbed the rocks of the waterfall or used the vegetation to climb. They could be out of the water exposed to air for several minutes. It must have been the taste or smell of the new water that drew them. 

The banks of the new pond were exposed as the water level dropped during the dry weeks of the early summer. As more of the banks were exposed, vegetation, grasses, ferns and all, moved down the bank. When the pond filled, all that vegetation was submerged. I’m guessing that’s what the crayfish smelled. Since they have been in the new pond, a lot of the vegetation has disappeared, the crayfish army has eaten it. 

I had to re-work the new lupin bed. The rain and watering I did washed out a lot of the sand. I made a rock barrier on the low side and dug out around the upper sides to make the bed bigger and added more sand. It looks better and the sand, so far, stays in place. I also planted a bunch of lupin seeds in the expanded areas. 

I also transplanted some ferns in the area with the new springs into the dirt piles that I dug out. I like ferns behind the new pond, but they grow all over the gardens. An occasional fern in a flower bed seems OK, but they take over as soon as you turn your back. I pull them out of the beds and move them or chuck them if they don’t come out with a rootball. 

New blooms: Queen Anne’s lace, goldenrod, gooseneck loosestrife, aster.  

Blanca explores the yard and pasture. Now she's off leash.

Kaley says the water tastes the same to me.

Two fritillary butterflies on a bee balm. They are different types. The one in back has more black markings on the fore wing.

A crayfish doing a wall climb. It's using that stem in its front claw as an aid.

Several crayfish climbing the waterfall.

Crayfish on top and getting to the new pond.

The new brook and waterfall.

Blanca Joins the Pack.

7-20-21 VERMONT: We love the dog, now named Blanca. Pix are on FB and Twitter. Integrating her into the pack is tricky, but is going well for the second day. She has been a kennel dog with no obedience training, no leash training, little car experience, but now walks pretty well on leash and was fine in the car. 

Tonight we’re getting a severe T-storm with loss of power, heavy rain and lots of crashing and banging.  Kaley is very upset and Blanca is following her lead, Maizie is sleeping, and Bally looks like he’s concerned that he’s not as upset as Kaley.  

The drive back from Bangor was routine, marred only by a few brief, mild showers and moderate traffic at worst. I spent the day, after going shopping with Judy and Blanca, doing some pruning, weeding and later I found a new spring oozing above the new pond. I dug it out and dug a trench to the pond, and lined it with rocks. I dug it out up hill to find the source, but stopped after about twenty feet, when I got to a big boulder. It has a steady, moderate flow, but will probably dry up if it we go back to the drought conditions of last summer. The pond has filled more than half way up from all the rain before tonight, and this rain, and the spring should have it full soon. We have had 2 inches of rain this week.

The hybrid daylilies are spectacular. They vary from the native kind by size and shape of the petals, color, of course, bloom time, flower size. There are hundreds now—I will show a few.

New blooms: pickerel weed, more hosta, rocket ligularia, phlox, Indian pipe.  

Hybrid daylily--purple with white edging and a yellow heart.

Hybrid daylily in peach.

Hybrid daylily tomato red.

Hybrid daylily in spidery format.

Hybrid daylily, an older bi-color hybrid.

Hybrid daylily--yellow and spidery.

Blanca. First meeting.

Blanca, Settling in, this will take a little time for everybody to learn their status in the pack.

The Maine Event.

7-18-21 BANGOR, MAINE: We’re here to pick up a new, adopted dog, a golden female from Goldenridge Kennels in Hampden, Me. She, Haley, is a retired mom, who Judy hopes to convert to a therapy dog to add to her set.

We left Thetford in the morning in the rain and drove through New Hampshire to pick up I-95 in Portsmouth and drove and drove through the wind and rain and more rain to Bangor, near the center of Maine. We did stop for lunch at Bob’s Clam Hut in Kittery.

Bangor is perched on the banks of the Penobscot River at the point where it becomes navigable. Upriver it drains a large part of the state. The river was the route for timber transport, and the town has a big statue of Paul Bunyan, the mythic lumberjack. His famed blue ox, Babe, is no where in sight. I remember reading and loving preposterous stories of his fabled lumbering as a kid, before I became a tree-hugger.

The rain continued as we did a quick car tour of downtown Bangor and got a couple soggy pix of the Penobscot. After a nap, we ate at Timber Kitchen and Bar and went back to The Tarratine Inn on French St for the night. We meet the dog tomorrow. 

The Penobscot River looking south.

The Penobscot looking north in the rain.

Paul Bunyan, full size.

Waterfall, Lupin, and Chelsea.

7-13-21 VERMONT: It’s been more than a week since the last post, time slips by when you’re busy and, probably, a bit demented. Rain—good amounts almost every day and an inch last night for a total of 1.75 inches for the week. Nobody’s watering here, for now. 

With the upper pond down a foot, in spite of all the rain, I decided that it was time to do repairs on the spillway waterfall. The problem was that water ran down through and behind the rocks, causing erosion and, perhaps, threatening the integrity of the the waterfall and dam. I took all the turf off the top to expose the surface and then dug out the dirt to see the structure. There were multiple holes and gaps, it was like a sieve. 

I filled all the gaps with gravel, tamped it down, and mixed up a bunch of concrete and filled the holes and added some large rocks to the mix to, hopefully, make the top of the waterfall watertight. When it’s thoroughly dry, another day or so, I’ll replace the turf. We will have to wait for the pond to fill and overflow to assess the job. 

Add to the above job a bunch of pruning, mostly apple trees, a bit of weeding, and some new perennials. Judy and I went to Frost Gardens for their perennial sale, they hope to close for the season at the end of July, and are offering nice price reductions. I bought three Ligularia dentata, two ‘Othello’ and one ‘Desdemona’, and four lupin. I planted the Ligularia in the porch bed near the Ligularia there now that has thrived for several years. The lupin will go into a new bed on the bank of the big pond near the primrose bed. 

Lupin are legumes, like beans, clover, peas and some other plants, and legumes can take nitrogen directly from the air. The air is 80% nitrogen, and nitrogen is one of the main elements in fertilizer. This ability is called nitrogen fixation, and it means that leguminous plants don’t need fertilizer, in fact they add nitrogen to the soil. The Native Americans knew this and planted beans, legumes, with corn, a heavy feeder. 

The heavy, thick turf on the banks of the pond is great growing material, but the grasses there are so embedded that they own the bank. When I try anything new on the bank, I dig out the turf and do the planting with fresh soil in the hole I’ve made so the new, struggling plant won’t have to compete with the established and aggressive grasses. Lupin, being a legume, grows in the poorest soils, and it’s super power is that other plants can’t grow where it can. So, to make the lupin bed, I dug out a large section of the turf, including all the roots. 

When the rain stops, I will fill that hole with sand, from the town’s motor yard, it’s free for residents. It will be the poorest of soils. The Lupin will go there and grow and not be overwhelmed by other stuff. That’s the plan.

New blooms: more hybrid daylilies, campanula, bindweed, second meadow rue.  

Monarch butterfly on bee balm, hopefully, the bees won't be too offended.

Hybrid daylily. These colors are so vivid.

Foxglove is another favorite of mine.

Filipendula makes this frothy flower that makes me think of opening a bottle of champagne.

Last Saturday we went to the Chelsea Flea Market. Chelsea is the seat of Orange County, where we live. it's an old Vermont town with lots of old buildings and two greens, both covered with dealers. Judy bought a silhouette of an English officier from the Revolutionary War.

General store on Chelsea's main street.

The Orange County Courthouse in Chelsea with its gold dome.

On the road back from Chelsea, we stopped briefly at Huntington Farms for a glimpse at the riding competition.

A farm on the road. The tractor is haying.

July 3,4,5,6

7-5-21 VERMONT: We have celebrated our independence once again with a big crowd of grands and friends here. There was rain over the weekend, everyday a bit more, for a total of 2.55 inches—all much welcome. Judy did a big dinner Saturday night, and Gardner and Anna did dinner on Sunday. Among the attendees on one night and/or the other—Anna, Gardner, Erica, Lucy, Cory, Jenna, Ben, John, Rob, Holly, Maizie, Kaley, Balfour and me. It was cold all weekend, the heat was on and there were fires every night.

Judy and I and Lucy and Cory went to Candela in Hanover Friday for our first post-Covid visit, and we’re pleased to report that Candela has survived and is well. 

Everything in the yard enjoyed the rain except a few plants that got knocked down. The upper pond picked up a few inches, but there was apparently no runoff to put more water in the pond. I guess the trees soaked up all the rain. 

New blooms: evening primrose, hyssop, hollyhock, hydrangea, oxeye, sweet birch.

Milkweed in bloom has attracted all the butterflies.

Judy and I visited Bradford on Saturday for the 'strawberry festival', a bit over-hyped as we were the only ones there for a while, but the short-cake was good. The waterfall was in good form too.

The flag hung from two bucket trucks in Bradford.

Evening Primrose looks nothing like other primroses.

Rosebay Rhododendron flowering by the pine tree removal.\

Waterfall in action...

The Day of the Butterfly.

7-1-21 VERMONT: The heat wave is over, and we have had rain every day for four days, only an inch total, but it’s a start. 

I have seen a lot of butterflies this summer, but they have all been active, flitting around and not settling down for pix. That was until today when I caught several on milkweed in bloom—fritillary, monarch, white admiral, skipper. Tiger swallowtails remain elusive as well as a few others active and unidentified. 

Most of the flowers seem to be coming out earlier than usual. Is this due to the heat waves, or does it mean an early fall, or nothing? 

The big dead pine tree on the road near the house is gone. Chippers was here and took it down in about four hours. They did a good job of not destroying the shrubs and gardens under the pine. We now have two stumps 5-6 feet high, and I thought about having them carved into bears by one of those chainsaw artists. Judy said ‘No way.’ 

New blooms: astilbe, mallow, hosta, rosebay rhododendron, filipendula, foxglove, bee balm.   

White Admiral showing the ventral surface of the wings. Milkweed flower.

White Admiral again, here showing the dorsal surfaces of the wings. Milkweed flower.

Great Spangled Fritillary with all six legs, two antennas and a long tongue all visible. Milkweed flower.

Monarch behind a milkweed leaf. His feet holding the leaf are visible.

Essex Skipper from a few days ago on vetch.