Heavy rains, humidity, and the dilemma of whether to open the windows

The heavy rains of the past few days have really invigorated the forest. Everything is now looking a lot greener than it did even at the end of last week. That's a good thing.

Of course, keeping the inside of the cabin cool during these warmer days is made difficult by all the additional humidity that all the rain and increased transpiration rates imply. The other day, I opened up the windows to let the inside of the cabin cool off, only to wake up in the morning with ~90% humidity inside, and everything quite damp. Close the windows then, and turn on the dehumidifier. By the time the humidity returned to a far more comfortable 60%, the temperature had risen back to where it was before I opened the windows.

Therefore, like every summer, it's a choice between cool and damp or warm and drier. Yes, it's nice to be cool, but not at the cost of having damp, mildew and mold set in. Having grown up in a humid climate, I know all to well what damp can do to mold growth, and what mold growth can do to furniture, coverings, clothes, walls, carpeting, etc.

Still, when the cabin is all closed up, thanks to the shading of the trees all around, the internal temperature doesn't rise that much during the day, so even when the outside temperature rises from 65F to 80F during the course of the day, the inside of the cabin might only rise a couple or three degrees.

Having an air conditioner would be nice, but it is also unnecessary so long as the trees continue to shade the cabin during the summer.

Fireflies out

Last night, I saw one winking firefly on the sumac. Summer is here.

Cleared massive fallen tree branch

Yesterday, there were bands of storms working their way across Michigan (and much of the Midwest). Yesterday, too, there was an Elderwise event: "Walk in the Woods," led by professor emeritus, Chuck Olson. Luckily, they didn't get rained out, but there was apparently a near miss:

The thunder shower that came through about 12:20-12:40 was over by the time we started. While we had a brief shower, later, most of the wet stuff was dripping of the trees. When we walked around the lake, I was surprised at the amount of windfall I saw, and especially by the very recent tree that dropped across the path just befoer we got to the side path to the board walk. We got around it (actually over it) and finished our walk without any real difficulty.

I went out there this morning and took care of the MASSIVE fallen branch.

BEFORE, there was a massive branch across the path, making it rather difficult to walk that route:


AFTER, apart from some debris and dug-up earth, the pathway is now clear:


I'm gonna miss this kind of work, even though I probably sweat several pints in the process. It's good, honest, physical labor, and it feels great.

Muggy days in store this week.

Looking ahead to the weather of this week: it looks kinda icky. No low temps below 60F, and always humid. It looks like I'll be keeping the cabin closed up this week, with the dehumidifier running in order to take advantage of evaporative cooling.

Big, black ants in the cabin

I think that I've got carpenter ants in the cabin. There aren't swarms of them (yet), but I guess that I'll have to lay down some more ant bait (and also clean up the bread crumbs a little bit better. Happily, they don't seem to be going after my compost pile. Maybe because it's almost entirely coffee grounds.

Hello turkey vulture, please come back!

Last week there was a turkey vulture flapping around the trees near the cabin. Yesterday, I smelled the sickeningly sweet smell of decay. I guess this guy wasn't just paying a friendly visit, but was actually looking for lunch. Hopefully, it will eat its fill and help diminish the time that the rest of us have to smell the rot.

Voluntary Pulling of Garlic Mustard

Spring sprung very quickly, and the garlic mustard has been LOVING IT



and - although I have been pulling garlic mustard for the past month - it sometimes feels like I'm playing a game to stalemate...

Last week, I got an e-mail from a long-time walker:

We have noted garlic mustard in the past in the Saginaw. ... We were wondering if we could get permission to pull some garlic mustard. We know to bag it and that the seed pods can continue to develop after the flowers are picked.

Yesterday, I received an update:

I have done some but we have had difficulty finding time to do a concerted effort. Today we pulled for 2+ hours and filled 2 large bags; we left on in the fire pit but carried the other one out expecting to find more which we did.

As of now, the path from the Parkland Plaza entrance that passes the two lakes and then the cabin to the boardwalk are relatively clear. We found 2 areas more infiltrated off the trail towards the cabin after the tree root steps up and more in one section near the frog pond. Unfortunately, we did not get there early after blooming so hopefully got some seeds; it was harder to get roots since the ground is dry. We did not go on the upper trail but will, possibly Wednesday. Otherwise, the biggest patch we saw was by the cabin although we did not take side trails.

We saw lots of rosettes that will emerge next spring so hopefully the effort can start sooner.

Indeed, there was a trash bag filled with garlic mustard in the fire pit. I took it to the trash can at the front gate, and it will go out tomorrow for trash day.

A big and hearty, "THANK YOU!" to this visitor-steward and to everyone else who has been pulling out garlic mustard whenever they've seen some. I know that pulling it up will help ensure that future years won't have large accumulations, and that - compared to last year - there are areas that are now completely garlic-mustard free.