People have been a bit anxious over the report recently that Joe's Pond has a blue-green algae bloom. This is not an unusual occurrence and will be monitored so we can let you know if the situation changes and becomes a concern. To learn more about exactly what is going on, here is a
link to a report the includes information specifically about Joe's Pond.
We're heading into some very warm, muggy weather for the rest of the week, especially during the weekend. We spoke with our friends in Alaska earlier this week - it was Elisabeth's birthday - and Michael told us the weather there has been much warmer than normal. The daylight hours in that region are much longer this time of the year, so things don't get cooled down a lot as happens here. We have heard about the shrinking glaciers and that the permafrost is melting, and that is causing severe damage by eroding river banks and damaging some of the vegetation as the permafrost melts. Their temperature today in Anchorage was 72 - and last winter some days there were actually warmer than we were here. Not good trends for not only vegetation, but also animals are needing to adapt and look for food in unusual places.

We had some trees removed from around our power line yesterday. It is absolutely amazing to watch those guys work.
Alexander Tree Service did the work. Calvin Alexander is a very nice young man and he's had a lot of experience doing this. He and his helper, Dan, had several trees down, chipped except for the hardwood we asked

him to leave for wood, and the driveway all swept clean in a matter of about three hours. We are very pleased, but now will need to get used to not seeing those big old trees looming over the driveway. There are still some very tall trees on the other side of the light line that may need to come down eventually, but we think the dangerous ones are taken care of.

The first picture is the rig - truck that holds the chips, and hauls the chipper, which you can see in the second picture.
That's Calvin limbing out the trees before he brings them down. Dan is on the ground taking branches to the chipper. Then Cal goes up the bare tree and cuts it down in sections about eight or ten feet long. We were glad to see he had a safety line attached to another tree so if he missed his footing or something else happened, he wouldn't free-fall

to the ground.

They delivered the chips to Jamie and Marie. I was going to have him blow them into the woods, but it worked out that he had not quite a full load, so he took all of them to Jamie. Then when I need more, Jamie will bring them down to me and he and Marie will have plenty to use. Cal brought a small load to me a couple weeks ago. I haven't done much with them yet, but they are great for bedding the flowers and around trees to keep the weeds down. They work well for paths or anywhere you want to keep weeds from taking over. But you have to put them on in a thick layer.

We have a small chipper we've used for years, but I have to tell you - it's a whole lot easier to just have them brought in by truck and dumped in a pile. Cal said he has a hard time finding places to dump them, so he doesn't charge if you want some. Pretty neat. And they smell good. They will eventually compost into the soil and lots of plants really thrive with them as bedding. Now all we have to do is get out there and spread them around where they'll do some good. I won't be out there during this hot weather, but a little later, it will be a joy to spread them around and see the results.
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