Well This Feels Real Weird, It's 60F Outside ...

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No fire yesterday. No fire today either. Temperature going to drop overnight.

Washed our cars yesterday. My wife's Escape was rear-ended late last year. Polishing compound (less aggressive than rubbing compound) and waxed her rear bumper cover. Doesn't need repainting. Have to order the rear bumper absorber that is behind the rear bumper cover since it is broken.


Going to start splitting wood with a maul tomorrow. We're fasting tomorrow. Don't thing I'll last too long outside. Not a lot of energy of days we fast.
 
Enjoy the moment, cold weather is coming. The west coast is on the opposite end of the seesaw. Windy and cool now, with an expected temperature drop of 15-20º in the next day or two. Snow is showing up in the forecast for several areas. Sounds like we will be burning hardwood soon.
 
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Yeah, it's supposed to freeze here tonight. That's a ~40 degree swing between day and night temps, which is a big swing for island weather.

Island weather is always a little disappointing to talk about because it's the same as inland weather, but less of everything. ;) Lower highs, higher lows, less stuff falling out of the sky.
 
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It's cooling down now, low 50s. Hoping it'll be cool enough to start the stove tonight. Spent the afternoon moving the rounds I split yesterday with a neighbor's log splitter. A good day to do that I suppose, but just felt weird with it being so warm.

It's amazing that there could still be active ticks outside now, maybe they burrow way down deep?

truck with split wood.jpg
 
House 81 with the solar room churning out extra BTUs. No fire. Weird for early January,thats for sure. Wind blowing direct south to north is the cause straight up from florida.
 
It's amazing that there could still be active ticks outside now, maybe they burrow way down deep

Ticks dig down in the leaf litter over winter. They need several days of very cold weather (-20 F) to die off. Snow acts as insulation so the best way to kill them is very cold weather and not a lot of snow cover.
 
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Ticks dig down in the leaf litter over winter. They need several days of very cold weather (-20 F) to die off. Snow acts as insulation so the best way to kill them is very cold weather and not a lot of snow cover.

Didn't realize they were that resilient. So just below freezing certainly won't do it. We had a concerning situation with mosquitoes in this area, they were carrying a dangerous virus. So much so that many early evening activities like school sports were curtailed to times when the mosquitoes were less active. Weather forecasters said we needed a deep freeze to eliminate that situation - but ticks are evidently in a different category.

Another reason I like a cold season - at least no mosquitoes.
 
… No fire yesterday. No fire today either. Temperature going to drop overnight …

I was wrong. Had a fire last night. Temperature dropped 20 degrees very quickly. I lit a fire after 6 PM.

TV news said that there is a -31 F 24-hour temperature change in Boston this morning.
 
Next time you see a tick put him in water and freeze it. Wait a couple days and thaw it out. That sucker will come back to life. When i was a kid every one around this region burned all their woods and that really helped minimize the ticks. Its not very common now as a lot of the old timers have passed on or sold out their farms, possibility of being sued, and climate worries i suppose. I also notice now that when we do have a wildfire they kill a lot of timber from deep leaf litter around trunks burning.
 
Takes two weeks in a freezer at -10::F or colder to kill a tick. I know from experience.
 
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I cleaned the inside of the vehicles . . . they needed a good vacuuming, Armor All-ing, and defunking with some Febreeze.