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Go camping? In this weather?
Posted on July 1, 2009 by Rob Haneisen
Filed Under Rain, misery | Leave a Comment
The folks at the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation ought to look out the windown before sending press releases.
Today, DCR sent out a press release to publicize camping at state parks. Really. Do you think anyone is even thinking about camping when nearly every site is a puddle of mud? This is why I don’t like camping. I’ve spent too many nights as a child and adult sleeping wet tents. Or at least trying to sleep.
The stake in the heart of any desire to go camping was my time in the military. Boot camp, Fort Knox, Kentucky. It was March and it was absolutely pouring outside. The temperature was maybe 40. And I was at least semi-wet for the next three days. Doing a 20-mile road march carrying 75 pounds of wet gear on my back was how that little excursion ended. And so did any desire to go camping.
In case you are wondering, here’s the text of the release:
The Patrick Administration is encouraging residents across the Commonwealth to take advantage of the innumerable camping opportunities in state parks from the Berkshires to Boston and Cape Cod.
“Few things in this world are sweeter than sleeping under the stars – except maybe a fresh ’smore by the campfire,” said Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Commissioner Rick Sullivan. “I would urge everyone to get outside, enjoy the sights and sounds of nature, and give camping a try.”
Camping is an affordable way to take a family vacation. For Massachusetts residents, campsite fees at the 28 DCR campgrounds range from $8 to $15 a night, depending on the location and amenities. At the end of the day, around the picnic table or campfire, some of the best stories are told, songs are sung, and games are played with family and friends.
As part of its commitment to improving state parks, the Patrick Administration devoted more than $30 million for storm water management and hazardous waste removal at state parks last year. Funds for the Commonwealth’s improvement of state parks come from the $1.7 billion Energy and Environment Bond Bill passed in 2008. In addition, $56.9 million was allocated to purchase land for DCR parks and reservations.
DCR offers visitors the chance to spend the night in a tent, trailer, RV, cabin, or yurt, depending on the park. For those new to camping, staying in a yurt is often the best way to start. Yurts, which can accommodate 4 to 6 people, have canvas sides and a wood floor and come equipped with beds, tables, and chairs. Campers must provide their own bed linens and eating utensils.
A four-person yurt is $30 per night; a six-person yurt is $40 per night. Five DCR parks offer yurt camping: Nickerson State Park in Brewster, October Mountain State Forest in Lee, Otter River State Forest in Baldwinville, Shawme-Crowell State Forest in Sandwich, and Wells State Park in Sturbridge.
For back-packing enthusiasts, the campground at Mt. Greylock has been converted to a hike-in facility beginning this season. For the last two seasons, the 22 campsites have been a de facto car-free area because the roads to the top of Mt. Greylock were closed for construction. To access the campground, campers had to hike 2.5 miles up the mountain.
Nonetheless, the area saw a steady flow of campers. Following a public meeting last November, DCR decided to maintain the Mt. Greylock campground as hike-in only.
“Throughout DCR’s system of campgrounds, there are only two – one on the Boston Harbor Islands and one on Washburn Island in Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve on Cape Cod – where a family can camp in a car-free environment,” said DCR Commissioner Sullivan. “We frequently hear from campers that they would like a camping experience that is not as challenging as backpacking on the Appalachian Trail but is more challenging than walking from their car to the picnic table. We believe the Mt. Greylock Campground is the perfect opportunity to offer that experience.”
For a complete list of DCR campgrounds, fees, and reservation information, visit www.mass.gov/dcr, click on “activities” and then “camping.”
What kind of fireworks will we have on the 4th?
Posted on June 30, 2009 by Rob Haneisen
Filed Under forecasts | Leave a Comment
And the misery train continues of wet, cloudy weather and lots of chances for afternoon storms.
You would be better off just forgetting the next three days. Moments of not-so-awful followed by storms, some could be severe tonight and tomorrow.
All anyone really cares about this week is the forecast for Friday and Saturday night. Will we even have fireworks of the man-made kind or the natural kind? Anything set for Friday night should probably have a back-up plan. Right now the forecast is cloudy with a 30 percent chance of showers. Saturday will be a little warmer but with a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms. Saturday night is also supposed to be cloudy.
Here’s something to consider - and it does not bode well for the weekend: At this point last week, the weekend forecast was supposed to be dry and sunny. The forecast changed by Thursday to kind of a hit or miss showers. Saturday during the day was nice and then we had big storms Saturday evening and Sunday was pretty much a cloudy, depressing mix of cool drizzle and showers.
So you’ll have to forgive my lack of optimism.
We just can’t catch a break
Posted on June 25, 2009 by Rob Haneisen
Filed Under Rain, misery | Leave a Comment
The weekend forecast has gone from sunny to a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms. We simply can’t catch a break with this unsettled weather pattern.
It’s been more than two weeks since I mowed my grass and I’m thinking about doing it tonight when I get home from work because today might be the only 100% dry day.
Even though it is going to warm up slightly this weekend tot he upper 70s, it’s still going to be below average.
Yesterday was cool. Worcester checked in with a high of 63 (normal high would be 76) and Boston was only 64 (normal would be 79).
Can you imagine if you had a vacation booked for this week?
How do gardens survive all this rain?
Posted on June 24, 2009 by Rob Haneisen
Filed Under Agriculture, Rain | 1 Comment
Tom Tierney sent me an e-mail this morning regarding my column in today’s MetroWest Daily News about donating excess garden crops to local food pantries. He was hoping I would offer some advice on how to keep your garden from drowning in all this rain.
Well Tom, you ask, you shall receive.
Some of my gardens are surviving better than others, depending on location and what is planted there. The peonies have all flopped to the ground, the flowers rotting off. The actual plants look really healthy though. Same goes for the wisteria. I’ve lowered my expectations on the strawberries. All this rain will likely produce some rotted fruit and the herbs and mint planted around the fruit is going a little wild.
The tomatoes are hit or miss. My front garden with tomatoes is doing very well. The plants look great. The back garden not so much. The plants are OK but look like they are suffering from a little mildew. That garden has a history of it so I’m not surprised. The front garden is a brand new raised bed this year and has a nice healthy mix of loam and peat moss. I think that is the key: Raised beds drain off excess moisture and the peat moss and loam mixture provides for a well-drained soil mixture.
So my two recommendations are go for raised beds and use a nice fluffy soil mixture using loam, compost and peat moss. Avoid heavy clay soils.
Also, it can not be said enough to try and keep the slugs down during this time by staying on top of your weeding. I’ll admit I have not done this enough but I can see where this would help.
And the forecast? More rain today, chance of thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon and Friday. Might be better this weekend. And at least it will be near 80.
Hey Seattle, you can have your weather back
Posted on June 23, 2009 by Rob Haneisen
Filed Under Agriculture, Rain | Leave a Comment
I know ranting about the rain has been a recurring theme here but the weather itself has been on repeat cycle.
Last week, I emptied my rain gauge and when I last checked this morning it was at about 4.5 inches for the week. That’s by no means a biblical deluge but it’s the day-after-day nature of the waves of rain that is getting us all a little downtrodden.
This week is a little bit more of the same but at least it should warm up by Thursday. Chance of rain or thunderstorm stays with us until Friday.
I spent a good hour shoveling more soil onto my potato plants last night before dark. The more soil you pile onto the plants as they grow, the more spuds you get. At least that’s what my wife told me.
With all the rain, the plants are getting toppled over and as any gardening knows, any leaf that touches the ground in these conditions soon becomes a meal for slugs. I have seen plenty of slugs this year but the hordes I was expecting. I put out some slug bait last night so that should keep them down. The only reason I can come up with as to why I haven’t been overrun by the slimy buggers is the high numbers of very fat garter snakes in my yard this spring. They must be feasting.
Here comes the rain again
Posted on June 18, 2009 by Rob Haneisen
Filed Under Rain, forecasts | 2 Comments
No this isn’t an homage to the Eurythmics hit song. But this rain will pound on your head like a memory that won’t go away.
It’s going to pour this afternoon and tonight and a good part of tomorrow. Man it was beautiful yesterday. Too bad the only taste I had of that sun was the light coming through my window - I was home sick.
Anyway, the forecast calls for up to two inches of rain to fall in the next 24 to 36 hours. That brings up the possibility for street flooding and typical urban flooding areas. So avoid Rte. 9 near the intersection of Rte. 126 in Framingham.
With the possibility of wet weather through the weekend that brings up a potential washout for the U.S. Open being played at Bethpage in New York. Personally, I like playing golf in a light rain. It keeps the greens soft and it keeps some of the slower players (mostly the old foagies) off the course.
Wednesday is the pick of the week
Posted on June 16, 2009 by Rob Haneisen
Filed Under Rain, spring | Leave a Comment
It was a semi-wet and dreary weekend and Monday and it looks like that trend continues after Wednesday. Wednesday will be the pick of the week with warm and dry weather. After that, it goes way downhill with a chance of rain Thursday through Tuesday. And it will stay cool.
That’s spring for you. It can be 95 and muggy one day and then rainy and 58 the next. It’s a wonder anything grows this time of year considering the variety of conditions.
Despite the rain, we are still facing a rainfall deficit for the year. Boston sits at 3.6 inches below normal and Worcester is down 3.91 inches.
All apologies to your weekend
Posted on June 11, 2009 by Rob Haneisen
Filed Under Agriculture, Rain | Leave a Comment
The meteorologists were in full apology mode this morning as a weekend forecast that was dry and sunny is turning grayer and wetter. As of now, there is a chance of rain now through Tuesday with the heaviest coming Friday night.
We need the rain so I’m not too broken up about this. But, as most gardeners would agree, having some heavy rain every couple days is much preferred to five days of wet dreariness. For starters, the continued cool and wet weather fosters mold and mildew - two things tomato and pepper plants do not like. The weather is also not very cooperative for pollination of any fruiting bushes. I checked my raspberries last night and most of the canes already have developing fruit and very few remaining blossoms. The blueberries are already coming along nicely and are loaded with green fruit. The Asian Pears already have marble-sized fruits.
There are a lot of blossoms on the pea plants my wife planted, plus some pods, so maybe the production in that bed won’t be so good. On the plus side, we already harvested radishes and are eating some very tasty loose-leaf lettuce and spinach.
So what do you see happening in your garden with this spring weather?
Worcester Tornado 56th anniversary
Posted on June 9, 2009 by Rob Haneisen
Filed Under 1 | Leave a Comment
Today is the 56th anniversary of the Worcester Tornado that killed 92 people on its path from near Quabbin Reservoir, across the city of Worcester and ending in Fayville near Rte. 9.
In Fayville, the twister tore down the postmaster’s home and killed his wife, Mrs. James Trioli as well as a 26-year-old woman, Mrs. Ingarde Noberini and her 1-year-old child.
The Worcester Tornado is the only F5 tornado to damage Massachusetts.
Why does Massachusetts get so few tornadoes and most often very weak ones? Blame the cold air coming in off the ocean. A predominant seabreeze literally takes the sails out of the storm fronts. That’s why thunderstorms and fronts tend to weaken as they move east. And that’s why most tornadoes in the Bay State are confined to the far western or central portion.
Read an interview with survivor in tomorrow’s MetroWest Daily News.
How dry we are
Posted on June 4, 2009 by Rob Haneisen
Filed Under Droughts, ice, spring | Leave a Comment
As if we needed more evidence of the dry weather and how it is increasing the pollen counts each day, here are some statistics on our rainfall deficit for this year in several area locations:
Worcester:
So far this year: 14.97 inches
Deficit: 4.98 inches
What we had last year by this time: 24.44 inches
Boston:
So far this year: 14.87 inches
Deficit: 3.24 inches
What we had last year by this time: 21.01 inches
Providence:
So far this year: 17.96 inches
Deficit: 2.34 inches
What we had last year by this time: 22.41 inches
Hartford:
So far this year: 13.59 inches
Deficit: 5.62 inches
What we had last year by this time: 22.81 inches.
There is some relief on our doorstep. Forecasts say rain should move in tomorrow afternoon and night but it won’t be a lot. Saturday through Monday will likely be dry with storms coming our way Tuesday and Wednesday.
keep looking »
