New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Another Friday evening in hand here. Not a lick of winter here in town. Skim ice of a couple mornings has long melted. Three or four killing frosts. Which has now left us with silence of night. All the grasshoppers and crickets have now been killed off by the killing frost. So not just plants involved with that title. Now not another night below 40 degrees. Not looking good for deer snow. AKA snow during the deer season.  

 

And I hear a change a coming. A few minutes ago, I stepped outside with the dog. The tall white pines behind my house were actually calling tonight. They are more known to me by their whispers. It takes more focus to hear them then. How the cold air, driven by a true north blow, bit at my cheek. It struck me like a winter blast. An on- the- ice face blast while ice fishing. There are days you can remember that were much, much colder than most. To actually feel winter.

 

 

Yet winter seems to be kept at bay once more. Hard for me to figure how some folks can't figure out something different is happening. It is certainly going to be more difficult to move forward in carbon reduction. Anybody who knows me, know I have been a strong advocate of carbon reduction for two decades now. Because, unlike some, I believe my own eyes. And think we need to take drastic action now. Not a time for hands off the throttle.

 

Seems like the Suncook River and the inflowing brooks have run at some pace all year. No big summer drought, like we experienced recently. I think the National Weather Service drought map still shows some across our state. I know when I dug some potatoes recently from my garden the earth was like powder. So, yes still a drought.

 

Boy did the leaves come down around my house seemingly all-at-once, even the giant red and white oaks across the road from me, as well as even the beeches shedding some. There are windrows of leaves here and about. 

 

I'm still seeing turkeys about, but not much for deer. 

 

I met with my publisher 0n the coast the other day and drove down route 1A from Rye south. Amazing nearly eleven months out and still repairs of the highway or other structures along 1A. How much is this costing us all? Just one winter storm. Wow!

 

Just today the local farmer was bailing hay. First time I've seen a round bailer in that field. And all the cow corn fields that surround me at a distance have yet to be chopped. Though I can see the machine to do it just arrived at the farm recently. Let the whirring begin. I've always enjoyed the sound. As a hunter I know our turkeys will seek out these fields for spillage. Then, say after digestion with a not perfect rumen, some of that corn ends up in a pile in a field each fall. The internal heat of decay melts the snow from these piles, even in the worst of winters. This is critical turkey food each winter in NH.

 

Here's a reminder:

 

I'll have a book signing tomorrow night, the 9th, at the Harris Center in Hancock at 7pm. Come on by to get a signed copy of my book. And some conversation. 

 

Then next Thursday evening the 14th I'll be right in Concord at Gibsons Book store at 6:30 pm. Come on by.