Earth Hour, 8-9pm, lights out.
I hate when I make a note and I forget what it is supposed to remind me of. I have Duro on my post it, but I have no idea what it is supposed to mean. Maybe I'll think of it later.
There is a campaign to get people to turn off their lights from 8-9 pm tonight as part of an energy saving thing. I have not heard much about this except on NPR, but there was a small article in my paper today about a church in Canton that will be participating. They are going to have a candle light poetry reading tonight during that time.
Last year's Sydney event got 2.2 million Australians to participate. It resulted in a 10% drop in power usage.
I can tell you driving around at night I see houses where almost every light in the house is on. I cant imagine what their light bills are.
I don't think we are going to be home tonight at that time, we have a chance to go to the movies, but I will not leave the porch light on for us when we go. My puny solar lights will just have to do.
I was also listening to a program about birds on NPR's Science Friday and I was under the impression this was also an attempt to help migrating birds. Birds are thrown off course by the bright lights that come from cities especially. (again, I think I have mentioned how stupid it is for office buildings to have lights on when no one is working) Not sure that many people in this area are going to participate in Earth Hour, so I doubt it will make any difference this year, but it would be interesting if this kind of thing took off.
Of course, I suppose there will then be a spate of house fires as people leave their candles un-attended.
I just heard that maple sugar this year is selling for $45. a gallon. Higher fuel costs are to blame apparently, although I don't know what that means since I always see these people using wood for their boilers. There is no shortage of sap this year I can tell you. I trimmed some maples a week ago and they bled like stuck pigs. There is so much moisture in the ground thank goodness. And since its a cold spring around here, I think that is good for the sappers. If I recall correctly, it extends the season.
Also on the subject of trees, I want to note that some pines in the area are still dying. I was at my husband's work last week and noticed numerous pine trees around the parking lot were browning. Not sure if this is the result of last years drought, or if there is something else. Our arborvitaes in some sections at the cemetery are dying. Part of that might be that they are being crowded out by maple trees, but there are some that are just dying from the top down, and where I thought it was one tree, it seems others are also going. This year I am going to try spraying an insecticide around as many of our vulnerable trees as I can afford. Supposedly the roots will take up the poison and it will keep the beetles and things at bay. I hate to use poisons, but out trees are taking a beating with the winter moths, the black spot disease, and probably even beetles and such. The drought didn't help some of them I am sure. Although the leaves on the trees were very health last year despite the drought, or because of it maybe. Th black spot that was attacking the maples is a wet weather disease, and there was very little sign of it. Yay drought. :<
Sadly I noticed what looks like an elm that is also dying. It's a skinny tall tree that is partly wrapped around a maple. I didn't even notice it was there, and am not sure it is an elm. I'll have to wait and see what kind of leaves it puts out. But it has holes in the bark, and doesn't look healthy. We had many elms that died back 30 or so years ago. Some of them continue to put out suckers that turn into trees. We had a beautifully shaped tree growing out front. I was so hopeful for it. Then two years ago it dropped dead. We cut it down and still more suckers come up. Its strange. The roots survive, but the tree cant seem to. Our only other elm is a good sized tree, It might be 50 or more years old, but it is always dropping branches and I keep waiting for it to die. But it still keeps plugging along. The biggest elms I have ever seen were in Springfield at The Big E, which is a fairgrounds. I actually have a picture of my grandfather as a boy driving a tractor at the Big E exposition (E for East or Eastern). Anyway, I was at a stamping convention there one year, and we went out to eat lunch under the trees. They looked like elms based on the leaves, but they were HUGE. 60 or more feet tall, towering over the buildings. I don't know how they have survived if they are elms, but they were beautiful to see.
Yesterday I cleaned out the thistle feeder, which had hardly been touched all winter. The seed at the bottom was all gummy and moldy. so I dumped the good seed at the top into the regular bird feeder, and then cleaned out the thistle feeder. I noticed a bunch of chickadees on the feeder today enjoying the thistle. Not sure why they didn't eat it when it was fresh in the other feeder, but whatever.
This is getting lengthy.(and boring, lol) I'll mention the oil slick and Gov. Patrick's autobiography and whether I think Hillary should get out of the race for the white house in a later entry.
There is a campaign to get people to turn off their lights from 8-9 pm tonight as part of an energy saving thing. I have not heard much about this except on NPR, but there was a small article in my paper today about a church in Canton that will be participating. They are going to have a candle light poetry reading tonight during that time.
Last year's Sydney event got 2.2 million Australians to participate. It resulted in a 10% drop in power usage.
I can tell you driving around at night I see houses where almost every light in the house is on. I cant imagine what their light bills are.
I don't think we are going to be home tonight at that time, we have a chance to go to the movies, but I will not leave the porch light on for us when we go. My puny solar lights will just have to do.
I was also listening to a program about birds on NPR's Science Friday and I was under the impression this was also an attempt to help migrating birds. Birds are thrown off course by the bright lights that come from cities especially. (again, I think I have mentioned how stupid it is for office buildings to have lights on when no one is working) Not sure that many people in this area are going to participate in Earth Hour, so I doubt it will make any difference this year, but it would be interesting if this kind of thing took off.
Of course, I suppose there will then be a spate of house fires as people leave their candles un-attended.
I just heard that maple sugar this year is selling for $45. a gallon. Higher fuel costs are to blame apparently, although I don't know what that means since I always see these people using wood for their boilers. There is no shortage of sap this year I can tell you. I trimmed some maples a week ago and they bled like stuck pigs. There is so much moisture in the ground thank goodness. And since its a cold spring around here, I think that is good for the sappers. If I recall correctly, it extends the season.
Also on the subject of trees, I want to note that some pines in the area are still dying. I was at my husband's work last week and noticed numerous pine trees around the parking lot were browning. Not sure if this is the result of last years drought, or if there is something else. Our arborvitaes in some sections at the cemetery are dying. Part of that might be that they are being crowded out by maple trees, but there are some that are just dying from the top down, and where I thought it was one tree, it seems others are also going. This year I am going to try spraying an insecticide around as many of our vulnerable trees as I can afford. Supposedly the roots will take up the poison and it will keep the beetles and things at bay. I hate to use poisons, but out trees are taking a beating with the winter moths, the black spot disease, and probably even beetles and such. The drought didn't help some of them I am sure. Although the leaves on the trees were very health last year despite the drought, or because of it maybe. Th black spot that was attacking the maples is a wet weather disease, and there was very little sign of it. Yay drought. :<
Sadly I noticed what looks like an elm that is also dying. It's a skinny tall tree that is partly wrapped around a maple. I didn't even notice it was there, and am not sure it is an elm. I'll have to wait and see what kind of leaves it puts out. But it has holes in the bark, and doesn't look healthy. We had many elms that died back 30 or so years ago. Some of them continue to put out suckers that turn into trees. We had a beautifully shaped tree growing out front. I was so hopeful for it. Then two years ago it dropped dead. We cut it down and still more suckers come up. Its strange. The roots survive, but the tree cant seem to. Our only other elm is a good sized tree, It might be 50 or more years old, but it is always dropping branches and I keep waiting for it to die. But it still keeps plugging along. The biggest elms I have ever seen were in Springfield at The Big E, which is a fairgrounds. I actually have a picture of my grandfather as a boy driving a tractor at the Big E exposition (E for East or Eastern). Anyway, I was at a stamping convention there one year, and we went out to eat lunch under the trees. They looked like elms based on the leaves, but they were HUGE. 60 or more feet tall, towering over the buildings. I don't know how they have survived if they are elms, but they were beautiful to see.
Yesterday I cleaned out the thistle feeder, which had hardly been touched all winter. The seed at the bottom was all gummy and moldy. so I dumped the good seed at the top into the regular bird feeder, and then cleaned out the thistle feeder. I noticed a bunch of chickadees on the feeder today enjoying the thistle. Not sure why they didn't eat it when it was fresh in the other feeder, but whatever.
This is getting lengthy.(and boring, lol) I'll mention the oil slick and Gov. Patrick's autobiography and whether I think Hillary should get out of the race for the white house in a later entry.