New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

A stalled weather front has given us spectacular lightening.

Thursday 07/12/2007

Seems like some summers are very quiet with maybe an occasional thunder storm to give us some fireworks. This week has given us daily thunder storms and Tuesday night's storm seemed endless. The sky was constantly lit for a couple hours as a slow moving storm passed close by to the north of Epsom. I couldn't help but be outside to soak it in with only one close lightening strike occurring. We did get about a minutes worth of pea sized hail as well. I love thunder storms, just to feel and sense their awesome power amazes me.

I was up to my camp in Maine for the holiday with the extended family. Even my son was able to make it up for a couple days over the 4th. He hadn't made it up fro the holiday in a few years. We got in some nice fishing. A new addition to the lake this year was a float plane. This canary colored craft settled on the lake on the morning of the 4th and stayed the rest of the week. There were the usual bald eagle sightings as well as ospreys. W did discover a batch of baby toads at lakes edge on the 4th, though I have not seen any in Epsom yet.

Had plenty of rain this week, near three inches total with my rain gauge full at five inches by the end of the storms, plus what happened while I was away. So the Suncook River is running again, all be it pretty brown. I've noticed the blueberries are just about ripe. Time to start checking my patches for a nice summer's treat. My local farmers corn seems to be shooting out of the ground with some nearly 4 feet tall already. Just enough rain and sun it seems to grow grass well. My garden has taken a beating from the local deer population. Worse ever as I can remember. Luckily my first batch of peas were skipped by the deer, so I had fresh peas this week. But the new row of peas was grazed to the dirt the other night. I've since given them a spray of deer repellent which seem to be working, despite all the rain. I plan to get back at them this fall for sure. Seems like I should spend a little more time in that tree stand I leave in the woods not far from the garden. No doubt I'll have a little more patience this fall. Now for some fresh peas and a nice venison steak. Can't wait for next summer now.