What are you doing today?

[WhistlingBadger]

I'm hiding from smoke from a couple of wildfires here in Wyoming although it is getting better. Due to the lack of snow this past winter I knew that we'd have some fires. Smoke in the air really irritates my messed up eye so I hide in my apartment with A/C. Happily my apartment seals up enough that no smoke gets in.

@WhistlingBadger : Did you have any smoke issues or were you out of the wind direction?

Seems that every year fires get worse especially in areas like California. Don't really know the answer to this situation but strongly believe that they keep getting worse due to our putting them out. Wildfires and the same in mountain pine stands are nature's way of 'taking out the garbage'. Actually there are a few types of pine that the cones will hang from the tree for years waiting on a fire to open the cones such as Jack Pine.

How Trees Survive and Thrive After A Fire

Big or small, gradual or sudden, change rhythmically punctuates human life. In the natural world, change is just as intrinsic and pattern-based. Seasonal fluctuations in temperature, shifts in sun light, and natural disturbances, like fire, are all part of nature’s cycle.

www.nationalforests.org

Hasn't been too bad here yet. A few hazy days, but haven't been able to smell it yet. Hopefully it will stay that way.

 

[GaryE]

My province effectively belongs to a forestry corporation, and the trees are cut as soon as they can be profitable, to be replaced by monoculture plantings. We still get significant wildfires. The forests are massive. So far this summer, we've had a lot of rain spaced out, which has helped a lot. Last year, we had a couple of bouts of smoke. I wouldn't be excited about buying a home in the woods...

I'm on the other side of the continent from you, and I confess, I looked up Wyoming on a map when I "met" you. I now know that yes, Wyoming, Iowa and Idaho are real places!

Figuring out where posters here are has added to my understanding of geography. A lot of places in the US, Australia, the UK etc come to life in postings here.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

My province effectively belongs to a forestry corporation, and the trees are cut as soon as they can be profitable, to be replaced by monoculture plantings. We still get significant wildfires. The forests are massive. So far this summer, we've had a lot of rain spaced out, which has helped a lot. Last year, we had a couple of bouts of smoke. I wouldn't be excited about buying a home in the woods...

I'm on the other side of the continent from you, and I confess, I looked up Wyoming on a map when I "met" you. I now know that yes, Wyoming, Iowa and Idaho are real places!

Figuring out where posters here are has added to my understanding of geography. A lot of places in the US, Australia, the UK etc come to life in postings here.

I enjoy the international flavor of the forum, too, and I often click on people's "Location" when I have no idea where it is. Most of those end up being in the UK.

It's really dry here, so the fires are coming. They just haven't started yet. We didn't get the May/June rain and snow like we do many years, and it is very hot, so the mountains are dry. But for now, it's nice. Hot, but nice.

 

[GaryE]

It's interesting. Until I was in my 40s, tornadoes were in movies. Before I left my home city, they had become a common summertime danger, and I had seen a few funnel clouds. Now, here, hurricanes would brush the region every 10 years or so, as burnouts wandering up from the States. We've had 2 in 3 years, and they have come in still as hurricanes with a punch.
All of a sudden, hurricane season is interesting at a gut level.
Wildfires up north rarely affected our cities. They were out of sight, out of mind for us. Now, acrid smoke and sepia skies aren't rarities.

Our new thing is the appearance of Portuguese man of war jellyfish in the local beaches. Sea temperature is up, and we have a new fauna to adjust to.

Geography-wise - I learned about the faraway and exotic. The small cities and rural areas of other countries don't usually make the grade. There isn't a lot of reason to know about where I live, as much as I like it. In the wide world, it's a backwater. Every once in a while, someone on the forum will mention a town or a defined region, and google earth is really fun for seeing what they're talking about. There seems to be something called "Nebraska" close to Wyoming. I've been to North Dakota and the edge of Montana, and it was a very weird and wonderful land to travel through.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Please stay safe, you guys in places where the weather and natural disasters are happening. Thinking of you all.

 

[GaryE]

Please stay safe, you guys in places where the weather and natural disasters are happening. Thinking of you all.

There's nothing to worry about. You have regional floods and various disasters too. Do they affect us? Probably. I'm an asthmatic, so when there's a forest fire and the wind patterns bring the smoke, that's nasty. I expect a hurricane every year now, which I way better than when I didn't and they arrived! We're learning.

Climate change doesn't just bring warmer summers and fewer winter blizzards. It's trouble too. But trouble seems normal...

 

[gwand]

It’s been so hot here I have not been able to take my puppy on a long walk in over two weeks.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

There's nothing to worry about.

Eeehhh...!! I guess there isn't much I can do in a productive way just by worrying...

It’s been so hot here I have not been able to take my puppy on a long walk in over two weeks.

Aawww! What kind of puppy???

Short walks usually better for puppies anyway (fully vaccinated now?) and UK heat doesn't even compare, but I usually take my dog out very early am and very late evening when the weather is too hot for usual daytime walks. Always bring water and a plastic travel dish with us, and be aware of hot pavements on soft, growing pawpads!

If you can drive and have air con in your car, driving to grassy or wooded area where there's shade and the ground isn't too hot, without straying too far from the car, and being especially mindful if the dog is a breed with a pushed in face and prone to overheating...


Aaww, I'm not getting another for a long time, but I'm seriously puppy broody!

 

[gwand]

Eeehhh...!! I guess there isn't much I can do in a productive way just by worrying...


Aawww! What kind of puppy???

Short walks usually better for puppies anyway (fully vaccinated now?) and UK heat doesn't even compare, but I usually take my dog out very early am and very late evening when the weather is too hot for usual daytime walks. Always bring water and a plastic travel dish with us, and be aware of hot pavements on soft, growing pawpads!

If you can drive and have air con in your car, driving to grassy or wooded area where there's shade and the ground isn't too hot, without straying too far from the car, and being especially mindful if the dog is a breed with a pushed in face and prone to overheating...


Aaww, I'm not getting another for a long time, but I'm seriously puppy broody!

Thanks for the tips. My puppy is the result of a cockapoo and bischonpoo union. I entered her in this month’s pet contest here on the forum. Her picture is there.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Thanks for the tips. My puppy is the result of a cockapoo and bischonpoo union. I entered her in this month’s pet contest here on the forum. Her picture is there.

Aaww, she's adorable!! Looks a lot like my friends puppers.

Hope you can get back to longer walks soon, hope there's some nice woodland or something similar near to you, I'm sure the Cocker Spaniel part of her especially would love them!

(sorry, I'm biased towards Spaniels/gundogs in general!)

 

[Alice B]

I delivered my grandmothers sewing machine to my daughter

 

[Oldspartan]

It is horribly hot here and has been for days on end. We are regularly hovering at 100F real feel give or take a degree or two. The few rain bouts have been deluges last for maybe 20 minutes then quickly fade away. This summer has been nothing like anything I have ever experienced in my lifetime. Linda and I have been limited to 4 hours or less of outside work per day. Seems like we set up the tools only to put them away. It has been a physically draining affair to get the little building overlooking the pond built .... BUT

Yesterday we finished painting with the exception of cut ins and various embellishments that do not preclude using the new living area. Today we will put the furniture in the room and add solar lights to the walkway leading to it.

 

[GaryE]

This is our foggiest day yet. I can't see across the street. Since it's only my 3rd full summer here and I'm still learning the environment, I now know that a warm day with fog, after the rain we've had, is a hordes of bloodthirsty mosquitoes day. A cooler day is far more pleasant. Today, the fog isn't expected to burn off, and it'll be around 20c. If I get in the car and drive for 20 minutes, I can be in a hot and muggy climate, up in the mid 30s.

So today - I'll check on the first annual killies I've kept in many years. I bought a pair of Nothobranchius rubripinnis, because they are beautiful. Their eggs will incubate for 3 months or so, and I'm already trying to collect them. Adults live 9-12 months, and these are probably close to 10 weeks old. They're young and very sociable, feisty little beasts. My much longer lived plant spawning killies are easy going, energy conserving fish, but this pair of Nothos lives like it knows its time is short.

If I can breed them, and I've done it before, this is a fish that produces a lot of fry all at once, and that there is a market for. It's great to have an outlet for any surplus, if it all works.

@Oldspartan is being held back by the intense inland heat, and I'm dealing with a weird, fogbound set of limitations on outdoor work. I have a lot to do, but that's for a sunny day. Today, alas, I am going to be forced to go do stuff in the fishroom. Two of my companions from the Gabon fish exploring trip have sent me their films and photos, so I'll get to sit at the screen and go through all of that as well. Then I'll prep my own files and add them to the soup.

 

[Alice B]

I get about 2 hours of tolerable temps to water the garden, feed ponds and chickens before I have to run for ac. last year I worked during the heat and I think that is part of my platelet issue. don't overdo is my new motto. today emergency pump replacement, and it is 9:19 and all the stuff I have to water daily is watered, chickens and ponds fed, and the feral cat, about to feed my dogs then go put a loaner pump on a customer pond

 

[gwand]

Another 100+F degree day today. I will remain inside. I am working on several manuscripts which will conclude my research career. Swan song manuscripts.